Battlestar Galactica Lessons from Ransomware to the Pandemic

The fictional Battlestar Galactica series explains a key similarity: networked systems are vulnerable. Funders want companies to scale up, quickly, and become monopolies in their space, if they can, through network effects - a system in which the more people use a platform, the more valuable it is. We are much more dependent on software for critical functions today, and there is no guarantee there will be a kill switch next time. The better question is, why didn't digital hacks and ransomware happen more if the problem has been so widespread? In one sense, it has happened a lot. Plus, of course, just like the pandemic, the root of the digital vulnerability is a connected network with coupled vulnerabilities: the biological viruses can travel when we do, and malware and the software viruses can travel through interconnected networks. We can make programs more reliable and databases more secure. Addressing digital insecurity would also entail providing better regulation up and down the technical stack so that the negative externalities became more internalized by the companies-so they are responsible for solving the problems they create.