Many of us in occupational health are faced with the daunting responsibility for implementing and managing electronic medical records systems, that are secure from hacking and improper access. A panel led by Melissa Hathaway who was named the Panel Chair by President Barack Obama, led a 60-day review of the government's cybersecurity efforts. Labeled a "clean-slate" cybersecurity review, the Cyberspace Policy Review panel delved back to the 1840s when the only "programming language" was Morse Code.
The United States has
been involved in regulating cyberspace since it joined the International
Telegraph Union in 1908. The Radio Act of 1912 regulated wireless spectrum
licensing. The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was established fifteen years later in 1927,
and the interception of private radio communications was outlawed. In 1934, the FRC
was replaced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Since 1934, radio has
gone from analog to digital, telephones have gone from wired to wireless,
TV has gone from wireless to wired, and more of this traffic is riding
on the Internet. FCC remains the primary regulatory body for
electronic communications.
Abstracted from an article by: William Jackson in Government Computer News 6/10/2009