Is the current debate between Apple and the FBI about a legal problem, a technical problem, or a commercial problem? The short answer is that it is all three, and tomorrow’s lawyers—today’s law students—need to be better equipped to understand the underlying technical systems that will push the law in new directions. In no area of law is this dynamic more apparent than cyber security. And the response to the challenges must be a new approach to legal education that focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving.
In the last several years, society has come to understand that cyber security is not simply a technical problem, but rather is a more complex challenge implicating legal, technical, commercial, and strategic considerations, both at the level of individual victims (often companies) and governments. For companies, cyber security is front and center in the minds of both senior management and boards of directors. In the aftermath of major attacks on Target and Sony Pictures, for example, the CEO and co-Chairperson respectively stepped down from their jobs. Companies of all sizes in a range of industries have been sued directly and through shareholder derivative suits, and have been the subject of regulatory scrutiny. And banks like J.P. Morgan have announced that they are spending upwards of half a billion dollars per year on cyber security.1
