Cyber-Security Holism: A System of Solutions for a Distributed Problem

The issue of cyber-security has been wrongfully divided into many parts, each part addressed separately. The approach to cyber-security needs to examine the function of all the issues working together as in the study of complex systems. Discussion: There is currently no effective cyber-security paradigm. Crime, exploitation, and invasions of privacy are increasing costing billions of dollars and have even started to bridge into the physical world with the destruction of uranium enrichment centrifuges in Iran by the Stuxnet virus. There are a multitude of cyber security issues, but the most important topics address how to define malicious actions in cyberspace, the inadequacy of the international community to address these actions, and how active a role the private sector should play in the overall cyber-security effort. There is no groundbreaking technology that will solve this problem despite much work by government agencies and corporate entities. In fact, this effort has compounded the problem of cyber-security being examined in its parts when it should be looked at as a whole. This is a distributed problem that needs a distributed answer, a systems solution that works as in any well engineered system. Conclusion: The ideal answers for the individual issues of defining cyber-attack, applicability of current international law, and the proper role of the private sector does not produce the best answer for an adequate cyber-security paradigm as a whole. A system of solutions that produces an answer that is greater than their parts needs to be pursued.