Americans should protect their computers in the same manner they protect guns, Dr. Ben Carson contends in a new plan on cybersecurity.
“We cherish the Second Amendment for our right to self-protection, we must apply this same zeal to protecting our computers,” states an eight-page plan issued by the Republican presidential contender on Monday.
The candidate, who has repeatedly sought to establish his credentials on national security, touches briefly on a wide range of cybersecurity issues in the plan. “Recent cyberattacks and data thefts have been undeniably linked to China, Russia and North Korea, just to name a few,” he points out, in addition to mentioning the Islamic State and organized crime.
The plan lists a variety of facts about cybersecurity. In addition to naming those “bad actors,” it elucidates key pieces of information about the way cybersecurity is structured in the United States, noting that the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation are the agencies involved with nonmilitary defensive actions.
As president, Carson states, his chief solution to cybersecurity shortcomings would be the establishment of a new civilian agency, the National Cyber Security Administration.
However, the plan adds, “The NCSA is not a new federal bureaucracy. On the contrary, it is a consolidation and unification of the countless and often redundant programs, initiatives and offices which operate disjointedly throughout the government.”
Carson says the new agency would serve chiefly to raise awareness and conduct research. That would include research into defending against malware, new methods of multifactor authentication and ways to incentivize private entities to enhance their own cybersecurity.
Additionally, the plan states, the agency would work to integrate groups like Code Academy, Code.org, and Girls Who Code in a classroom setting. The organizations serve primarily as platforms to make programming education more accessible, and popularizing them has been a growing effort among tech enthusiasts.
Returning to a tagline of Carson’s campaign, the plan emphasizes that the new agency would simply be a means of helping Americans to empower themselves. “We the People must educate ourselves about the dangers which lurk online, and [secure] our own computers against those who would take advantage of us,” it says.
