The Wrong War: The Insistence on Applying Cold War Metaphors to Cybersecurity Is Misplaced and Counterproductive

In this article, the authors argue that rather than use the Cold War as an analogy for current cybersecurity issues, cybersecurity has more parallels to the 1840s and the actors, regulations, and solutions to the maritime industry. In comparing cybersecurity to maritime security—the decrease in piracy over the years, the authors offer up a two-prong approach to combating cybersecurity issues. The first step, they argue, is to go after the markets and structures that incentivize bad behavior. The second step is to build networks and create norms, which allows there to be more checks and balances and will weaken the value of hackers. Keywords: Cyber Governance and Norms, Cybersecurity, Cold War, Maritime Practices and Regulations