This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

by Nicole Perlroth

“The most likely way for the world to be destroyed,” it read, “most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents.”

“The world needs a new, digital Geneva Convention … What we need is an approach that governments will adopt that says they will not attack civilians in times of peace. They will not attack hospitals. They will not attack the electrical grid. They will not attack the political processes of other countries; that they will not use cyberweapons to steal the intellectual property of private companies. That they instead will work together to help each other and the private sector respond when there are cyberattacks.

Jim Zemlin, the foundation’s executive director, recently told me he thinks governments should consider mandating the cybersecurity equivalent of a driver’s license for programmers who maintain critical code.