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b'James Lewis, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies\\n\\n

James Lewis likens the Internet to the Wild West, an untamed environment with few restraints to inhibit innovation. It\'s a popular vision held by many in business and government, an impression that Lewis - senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies - believes puts cyberspace at risk. \\n\\n

"I just heard somebody from White House say that we want cyberspace to be unrestrained and uncontrolled, and to be like the Wild West because the Wild West was best for innovation and we need to keep the free and untrammeled Internet to allow for continued innovation. And, the Internet community would itself eventually come up with the solution to cybersecurity." said Lewis, who also serves as project leader for the Center\'s Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, which produced a report 13 months ago that served as a roadmap for the Obama administration in developing its cybersecurity policy. \\n\\n

Lewis, in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, said that idea that the unrestrained Internet community would develop solutions to battle digital threats is outdated. Indeed, he said, he was in that camp, and in 1996 wrote a White House report cautioning against regulating the Internet. "It\'s been 14 years, and it hasn\'t happened; it\'s time to move on," Lewis said. \\n\\n

Limited regulation won\'t stifle creativity; just look at other industries such as automotive in which innovations continue despite rules requiring drivers and passengers to wear seatbelts, he said.\\n\\n

In the second of a two-part interview, conducted by GovInfoSecurity.com\'s Eric Chabrow, Lewis also discussed the:\\n\\n

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• Outdated laws that govern information security and privacy, and the resistance to update them.
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• Challenges Congress faces in enacting meaningful cybersecurity legislation before campaigning begins for the midterm election.
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• Latest threats to information security that the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency will soon make recommendations to resolve.
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In Part 1 of the interview, Lewis graded President Obama\'s first-year cybersecurity performance and addressed the expected evolution of the White House cybersecurity adviser\'s job and the challenges confronting the new cybersecurity coordinator, Howard Schmidt. He also explained why he feels the federal government must take the lead in securing America\'s key digital assets, despite the fact that much of the nation\'s critical IT infrastructure is owned by business.\\n\\n

As a senior fellow at CSIS, a public-policy research group, Lewis conducts writes on technology, national security and the international economy. Before joining CSIS, he worked as a foreign service officer and as a member of the senior executive service. His assignments involved Asian regional security, military intervention and insurgency, conventional arms negotiations, technology transfer, foreign investment and the defense industry, sanctions, internet policy, and military space programs. \\n\\nLewis received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has authored more than 40 publications on a range of topics since coming to CSIS, including: Assessing the Risks of Cyber Terror and Cyber War, Strengthening Law Enforcement Capabilities for Counter-Terrorism and Globalization and National Security.'