When determining whether or not to disclose discovered vulnerabilities, the implications for the American economy, not national security, should be the leading priority, a former cybersecurity advisor to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama contends.
Currently, the Vulnerabilities Equities Process is an Obama administration national security policy that assesses whether the value of keeping newly discovered vulnerabilities as intelligence outweighs the security risk to the government and public of leaving them unpatched. However, the process often makes determinations “in the favor of intelligence and intelligence gathering for national security purposes,” said Melissa Hathaway, now senior adviser for the Cyber Security Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
