Digital Offense Capabilities Are Currently Net Negative for the Security Ecosystem
Proposition Digital offense capabilities are currently net negative for the security ecosystem.[0] The costs of improved digital offense currently outweigh the benefits. The legitimate benefits of digital offense accrue primarily to the security one percent ( #securityonepercent ), and to intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies. The derived defensive benefits depend on the nature of the defender. The entire security ecosystem bears the costs, and in some cases even those who see tangible benefit may suffer costs exceeding those benefits. The Reason Limitations of scaling are the reason why digital offense capabilities are currently net negative. Consider the case of an actor developing a digital offense capability, and publishing it to the general public. From the target side, limitations on scaling prevent complete mitigation or remediation of the vulnerability. The situation is much different from the offense perspective. Any actor may leverage the offense cap...