In 1983, Americans watched as Matthew Broderick, armed with only
a personal computer, brought the world to its knees. In the
popular movie WarGames, Broderick played a young hacker who
broke into the military’s electronic network and nearly started
World War III. In recent years, as fear of terrorism continues
to overwhelm rational threat assessment, the WarGames scenario
looks a lot like what so-called cybersecurity experts and their
federal government allies tout. The problem with
“cybersecurity,” says Jim Harper, director of information policy
studies at the Cato Institute, is that we’re convincing
ourselves that cyberspace is an endless sea of vulnerabilities
that leave us weak and exposed. It’s not. Harper has emerged as
the voice of reason among breathless news reports of “cyber
attacks” and calls for Washington to take over security of the
nation’s computing infrastructure. In his papers, congressional
testimonies, and numerous media appearances, Harper emphasizes
the need to better understand the natu