Science & Technology

10 Items

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Paper - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Reach, Choice, and Transparency: Governing the Internet in the 21st Century

| May 2023

As inventions go, the Internet stacks up with the best of them: the lightbulb, the automobile, even fire. In its first thirty years, the Internet’s worldwide adoption and breadth of application has exceeded any other technological advance in history. It expands our reach by bringing people, experiences, and things to us with the click of a mouse. It connects us to an increasing number of gadgets, from smartphones to voice kiosks and soon self-driving vehicles that will no doubt converse with us while we commute, happily oblivious to the traffic around us. We revel in our newfound agility and versatility. Importantly, our precious network kept us sane during a worldwide pandemic and enabled the world to work remotely while most of its population was frozen at home. For resilience against catastrophes alone, the Internet has become indispensable.

A close-up of a person scrolling on their smartphone.

AP Photo, File

Analysis & Opinions - Inkstick

Reframing the Debate on Cybersecurity Regulations

| July 17, 2022

In February 2012, the first significant attempt to set mandatory cybersecurity requirements and response plans for critical infrastructure was introduced in Congress. Unfortunately, it was watered down to voluntary standards and failed in the Senate. Opponents of the bill cited fears of overburdening regulations on companies and warnings of over-simplistic box-checking and minimum compliance. Business groups championed the narrative of big government to ensure the bill’s demise — and that narrative persists to this day.

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Announcement - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Chris Krebs Named Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center

| July 29, 2021

Christopher (Chris) Krebs, former Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has been named a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Homeland Security Project and the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

A worker helps to pump gas

AP/Chris Carlson

Analysis & Opinions - Harvard Law Today

Is the U.S. in a Cyber War?

    Author:
  • Jeff Neal
| July 14, 2021

In the wake of a series of damaging cyber intrusions on private businesses controlling critical pieces of U.S. infrastructure, Harvard Kennedy School Senior Lecturer Juliette Kayyem says that countering the growing threat will require erasing the "legal fiction" that cyberattacks are different than physical attacks on American civilians.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, right, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and former arrive for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Testimony - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Jeh Johnson Testimony on Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Elections

| Mar. 23, 2018

In 2016 the Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our Nation for the purpose of influencing the election that year – plain and simple. The experience should be a wake-up call for our Nation, as it highlighted cyber vulnerabilities in our political process, and in our election infrastructure itself. Now, with the experience fresh in our minds and clear in our rear-view mirror, the key question for our leaders at the national and state level is this: what are we doing about it? The matter is all the more urgent given the public testimony of our Nation’s intelligence chiefs last month, before this very Committee, that the Russians effort continues into the ongoing 2018 midterm election season.

FBI Headquarters

FBI, via Wikimedia Commons

Analysis & Opinions - The Washington Post

A ‘global game of whack-a-mole’: Overseas data rules are stuck in the 19th century

| Mar. 05, 2018

How should law enforcement officials deal with digital data that happens to be stored in a different country? If FBI agents, pursuing a subject who committed a crime in the United States, serve a valid court order on an American company, the government shouldn’t have to wait a year because the company happens to store the information overseas. Likewise, if the London police are investigating a local murder, the fact that they are seeking phone records from a communications provider located in the United States should not block them from doing their job. 

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Analysis & Opinions

Safely Navigating a Driverless Future

| Nov. 30, 2017

As autonomous carmakers gain greater latitude and flexibility to develop, test and roll out these vehicles in the Golden State and across the country, they must prepare for potential roadblocks. A failure to anticipate or appropriately respond to even the slightest mishap involving a driverless car could cause regulators and the public to hit the panic button. 

Photo of John Carlin, Lisa Monaco, and Alan Bersin

News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Homeland Security Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center Taps Top Security Experts as Inaugural Fellows

Feb. 07, 2017

The Homeland Security Project, a new initiative of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs headed by Juliette Kayyem, has announced the appointment of the Project’s three inaugural fellows, all of whom held top positions in the Obama and previous administrations.