Reconciliation of Privacy with Preventive Cybersecurity: The Bright Internet Approach

Abstract

The emergence of a preventive cybersecurity paradigm that aims to eliminate the sources of cybercrime threats is becoming an increasingly necessary complement to the current self-defensive cybersecurity systems. One concern associated with adopting such preventive measures is the risk of privacy infringement. Therefore, it is necessary to design the future Internet infrastructure so that it can appropriately balance preventive cybersecurity measures with privacy protections. This research proposes to design the Internet infrastructure using the preventive cybersecurity measures of the Bright Internet, namely preventive cybersecurity protocol and identifiable anonymity protocol, and ten privacy rights derived from Europe's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We then analyze the legitimacy of the five steps of the preventive cybersecurity protocol and the four features of the identifiable anonymity protocol from the perspectives of ten privacy rights. We address the legitimacy from the perspective of potential victims' self-defense rights. Finally, we discuss four potential risks that may occur to the innocent senders and proposed resilient recovery procedures.

Viewpoint: Information systems research strategy

“…Ultimately, I chose to amplify the value of programs as distinct strategic mechanisms. Such mechanisms may be higher-order and formal, for example, the AIS Bright ICT Initiative ( Lee, 2015 , Lee et al, 2018 , Lee et al, 2020 ); a key project of this initiative aimed to develop the framework for “ a new and safer Internet platform ” ( Lee, 2015, p. iii ). Programs can vary in size, scope and formality, from substantial and long-lived programs such as AVATAR (Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-Time), an almost 20 year partnership of eight universities led by the University of Arizona in conjunction with more than ten Government departments ( Nunamaker et al, 2017 ), to more local research concentrations (e.g.…”

Improving the governance of information technology: Insights from the history of Internet governance

“…Another implication of our study relates to the design of the Bright ICT initiative (Lee, 2015), which addresses concerns of security, spam, cybercrime, denial-of-service attacks, fraud, hacking, viruses and theft. Since its publication, this vision statement has attracted considerable attention and has led to several research papers (Lee, 2016;Lee et al, 2018Lee et al, , 2020. The initiative proposed certain principles that could be included in the design of the Internet, where the principles originated from existing ideas of security and responsibility sharing employed in other domains such as the environment, e-waste management, etc.…”

Relating Social Media Diffusion, Education Level and Cybersecurity Protection Mechanisms to E-Participation Initiatives: Insights from a Cross-Country Analysis

“…For example, social media has been extensively used to detect Covid-19 cases and monitor those people (Tsao et al, 2021 ). However, governments need to maintain and share a minimal amount of personal data (data only relevant to handle the outbreak) without misusing or violating data privacy (Lee et al, 2020 ; United Nations, 2020 ).…”