Event Material
Event Summary
Faced with a variety of rapidly evolving cyber challenges, the US needs new policy solutions to ensure that the Internet continues to be an American success story. On Tuesday, AEI released the report “An American Strategy for Cyberspace: Advancing Freedom, Security, and Prosperity,” which puts forward the beginnings of a comprehensive US cyber strategy, premised on the belief that present policies have not been sufficiently effective. Challenges abound in areas including online freedom, digital commerce, cybercrime, critical infrastructure, and national security.
At the event, keynote remarks by Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Mark Warner (D-VA) outlined how such a strategy is needed to address the nuances of these interconnected topics. The senators emphasized the need for new strategies, improved public-private cooperation, and a holistic approach to studying cyber challenges. To help address these problems, Sens. Gardner and Warner announced the creation of a bipartisan Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, noting the Internet’s increasing impact on the lives of Americans. The event concluded with two expert panels: one focusing on improving US approaches to Internet freedom and digital trade, and the other examining cybersecurity policy challenges such as fighting cybercrime and improving critical infrastructure protection.
—Matt Au
Event Description
The Internet is an American success story, generating tremendous benefits at home and globally, and helping to advance American values of freedom, security and prosperity. It has also created challenges, among them its use by authoritarian states to repress political freedoms, by criminals to steal property and commit extortion, and by America’s adversaries and potential adversaries to use malicious code and cyber-warfare to threaten our economic and national security. America and its allies are still searching for effective responses to these developments.
On June 14, 2016, AEI will release the initial report of its Global Internet Strategy project, a two-year effort to devise a comprehensive American strategy for cyberspace. Join the report’s authors, other Internet experts, and special guests Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Mark Warner (D-VA) for a discussion on challenges facing America in cyberspace and a briefing on the report’s findings and recommendations.
Join the conversation on social media with #AEICyber.