Last week, the American public was generally unprepared for state-actor attacks on our cyberinfrastructure. Indeed, many Americans were generally unaware that such threats exist, even though these threats could potentially be more destructive to the country than Sept. 11, 2001, or Pearl Harbor.
Last week, U.S. social media — indeed, worldwide social media — remained open to manipulation by malign agents of disinformation. We are still defended by only the thinnest of lines at the Pentagon and within the law enforcement and intelligence communities.
Last week, our tech titans were a largely unregulated group. If not exactly indifferent to the growing consensus that these members of Big Tech are achieving dangerous concentrations of power and wealth, then at best the companies moved at a snail's pace to convince the public of their good and fair intentions and thus cut off ham-handed and outdated regulation.