Much of modern life depends on computers and computer networks. They are critical for key functions such as managing and operating nuclear power plants, dams, the electric power grid, the air traffic control system, and the financial infrastructure. They are also instrumental in the day-to-day operations of companies, organisations, and government. Most computer systems are networked in some fashion today, most visibly and commonly via the vast collection of globally interconnected computer networks known as the internet.

With the growth of internet, attacks on computer networks have caused economic losses and created risks for national and international infrastructure security. Losses are estimated in the billions of dollars. Attacks have been directed against both commercial and government infrastructure systems. In addition, criminals around the world are increasingly using computers to commit traditional crimes, such as financial fraud, distribution of child pornography and copyright privacy. In the past few years, threats in cyberspace have risen dramatically. Vulnerabilities associated with the internet put users at risk. Security measures that were appropriate for mainframe computers and small, well-defined networks inside an organisation are not effective for the internet, a complex, dynamic world of interconnected networks with no clear boundaries and no central control. Security issues are often not well understood and are rarely given high priority by many software developers, vendors, network managers, or consumers.

We are still struggling to understand the nature of cyber security. A fundamental element of the problem is the unprecedented gap between the vertiginous pace of technological change and the inevitably glacial pace of policy and law making. The intractability of cyber security issues is due in part to the distributed nature of the digital infrastructure. Cyber security is a distributed problem partly because of the distributed nature of the underlying infrastructure and partly because industries, government and individuals all come at it with different perspectives. Under these circumstances regulation is best attempted from the bottom up, and legalisation, especially in the area of criminal law, should be sharply focused. There is the need for distributed approaches instead of the more traditional single, concentrated approach.

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