The Battle for Your Computer by Alon Arvatz

Author:Alon Arvatz [Arvatz, Alon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781394174164
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2023-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Final reflections

What is the right way to navigate the ethical and economic minefield of the offensive cyberindustry? Technological and procedural mechanisms have their place, but in the end, the most important thing is to build an organizational culture of ethics and healthy priorities. From my conversations with industry leaders, it is clear that many of the differences between companies revolve around this issue. They all have their own checks and balances, in addition to regulatory oversight, but the fear is that a company that places its short‐term profits at the top of its priority list will end up finding its technologies abused.

In contrast, companies where ethics and privacy protections are an integral part of the discourse, and where senior managers can turn down quick and easy money when needed, will be able to drastically minimize any abuse of their technologies. Culture is an elusive concept, which is hard to evaluate and even harder to enforce. Industry leaders argue that criticism of their industry is making it harder to hire and retain talent, and that one of the most effective ways of dealing with the problem is to maintain a moral backbone, giving employees confidence that their company is working for a good cause. Companies that adopt such organizational cultures will be able to turn their ethics into a competitive advantage in hiring workers and selling their products to customers.

Taking a comprehensive view of the situation, criticism of the offensive cyberindustry's mere existence is clearly unjustified. The public really does need to be protected from a range of threats, and offensive cyberfirms play a significant role in this effort. Moreover, extreme criticism and overly strict restrictions may end up diverting business from regulated to unregulated companies, which would only hurt the general public.

That said, proportionate criticism and sensible oversight on the part of regulators, civil society, and the media can work to effectively minimize the exploitation of offensive cybertechnology for the purposes of oppression and other nasty abuses. The right way to treat the offensive cyberindustry is, to some extent, like the weapons industry: a vital and important industry that requires moderate regulation, but not too tight, to avoid creating a black market. The cyberindustry must stick to this golden mean in the years to come.

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