Cyberterrorism and the Role of Silicon Valley

I can see Orwell was right already. "Terrorism" (the word) has become, by and large, a tool of nation-states and institutions like RAND to legitimize another horrific term: "extra judicial killing" (i.e. murder).

The last thing we as technologists need to do is feel obligated to take part in some continuous war against a concept that cannot be defined, with a victory no one understands or articulates.

Liberty has costs. We can either live in perfectly monitored and managed security (i.e. fascism) or make trade-offs that give us privacy and freedom critical to human flourishing.

The first thing you should do, if you want Silicon Valley to help fight cyberterrorism, is not talk to it via the RAND Corporation. Politically, Silicon Valley is an uneasy truce between liberals and libertarians, and while they don't agree on everything, I think one thing they share is a negative attitude towards the RAND Corporation; perceiving it as the face of the unaccountable military-industrial complex and its close friend, the panopticon surveillance state. Try again.

The article came off as incredibly sophomoric, like it was written just with a dictionary and a thesaurus. I didn't really understand the point of it, even though it was written by a veritable expert in terrorism.

I was hoping for some more intriguing and specific insights in what the tech community could do to help. Also their headquarters is a massive building in Santa Monica, on 1776 Main Street. Certainly RAND could produce something better than this?

Not only will Silicon Valley have to build more secure systems, most importantly people outside of Silicon Valley will need to make themselves willing to use these systems.