I’m writing as one of the many Americans concerned about the confirmed meddling in the 2016 election, as well as the recent cyberattack overshadowing midterms.
There are many upheavals right now in our government, but I implore our representatives to address perhaps the most immediate threat to our democracy – cyberattacks by foreign powers.
In June, a sixth branch of the U.S. military was proposed: Space Force. Not only is this unnecessary, it’s an absolutely ridiculous idea that would waste millions of dollars and only serve the current administration’s ego.
Yet, the administration continues to ignore attacks that are happening right now on American soil. We have military personnel stationed all over the world, yet we can’t defend ourselves from the attacks happening right now, every day, in our own backyards. And to think we need a Space Force for outer space combat.
We can no longer continue to trust corporations like Facebook and Microsoft to defend our cyberborders; we need to take action. We also can’t continue to think of borders in terms of physical walls, and attacks in terms of bombs and ammunition. The rest of the world is moving quickly toward more sophisticated and effective methods of warfare, and we need to catch up.
Please, if there is indeed money set aside to address cybersecurity and our current Homeland Security Department does not have enough support, I implore our elected representatives in Washington to create a bill that would make cybersecurity the sixth branch of the military. It would be much more useful than Space Force.
Deanna Kizer
Portland
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