Security has had more than 20 years to adjust to life in the Information Age. That’s the equivalent of two or three lifetimes in high-tech years. But it seems every time we feel closest to truly securing our networks, data and information, cybersecurity once again slithers out of our reach. Why is that?

In part, it’s because quickly evolving technology turns threats and mitigation techniques into living, breathing things. It’s also because cybersecurity is not just about each of us; it’s about all of us. Individual users, businesses and agencies across the globe have excelled at protecting their cyber assets. But individual efforts, while critical, are not enough. Information technology connects us all — sometimes more closely than we would prefer. We all share the risks and the responsibility.

This is one of the messages coming out of this spring’s frenzy of media coverage, executive branch shake-ups and legislative action regarding cybersecurity in the United States.

Cross-Sector Failures

Much of the recent attention to cybersecurity has revolved around an April 8 Wall Street Journal report that claimed foreign “cyber-spies” had penetrated the U.S. power grid and left behind malicious software. Since these claims surfaced, lawmakers, editorialists and industry experts have repeatedly evoked the alleged infiltration to illustrate both the need to improve national cybersecurity and the potential consequences of inaction.

Here is a prime example of the interconnectedness of our cyber existence: If our power grid were to be compromised and manipulated for malicious purposes, it would pose significant problems for the electric industry in the form of damage, fines, loss of revenue and more. It would pose problems for other privately owned businesses, which could lose significant revenue during prolonged or targeted power outages, and which could stand at greater risk of theft and looting in such circumstances. And it would pose problems for the public sector, which would have to expend extra resources to confront a potential increase in crime and unrest that extended outages might bring, and which could lose some of its capability to effectively deploy defenses in the event of simultaneous terrorist attack, for instance.