The Program on Digital and Cyberspace Policy addresses one of the most challenging issues facing the country in the 21st century: how to keep the global Internet open, secure, and resilient in the face of unprecedented threats. Digital technologies have become ubiquitous. More than six billion people use a cell phone, and five billion will be on the Internet by 2020. These trends have generated immense wealth and expanded political participation, but they have also created new vulnerabilities for nations, corporations, and individuals.

Rapid technological change has outpaced the existing rules of governance, security, and trade. The Internet became a global platform of knowledge sharing and commercial transaction in good part because no one ran it; its decentralized structure made it possible for businesses, universities, and individuals to exploit its potential as they saw fit. Many governments, however, now believe that cyberspace is a strategic arena that is too valuable or too dangerous to remain unregulated; they are asserting their sovereignty, censoring and blocking the free flow of information as well as promoting conflicting views of Internet governance. Terrorists, criminals and other non-state actors may soon be able to may be able to shut down power, communication, transportation, and financial networks with the click of a mouse, and militaries around the world are developing powerful cyber weapons without any agreement on how and when they might be used. The plummeting cost of data storage and collection, as well as the proliferation of surveillance technologies, are not only severely limiting the ability of individuals to organize, spread information and knowledge, and protest. They are also forcing a redefinition of privacy rights, trade rules and intellectual property rights, and the proper relationship between citizens and governments.

Through publications, blogs, and meetings, fellows in the program inform policymakers, business leaders, and the general public of the politics of cyberspace. The program also forges exchanges among the public and private sector through workshops and roundtables in order to help shape U.S. policy as well as the emerging global rules and norms of cyberspace. Current projects focus on cybersecurity and cyber conflict; Internet governance; and data, privacy, and trade.