The year is 2026. Cyberattacks have escalated to the point that megabanks are offline for weeks at a time, power grids go dark for ransom, airliners are guided into deadly collisions, a database of every American's Social Security Number is leaked, and drinking water is sabotaged by remote criminals. The USA CYBERSAFE ACT is passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. It mandates trusted federal security co-processors in every computer, key escrow, a national firewall at every ISP, an end to crime enabling online anonymity, and a chain of custody for all actions done on a computer: logs must be retained by a licensed business IT department or manufacturer of a consumer device for two years. Root access is a felony.
The year is 2027. Power grids still go dark for ransom, but at least the internet has been turned back into TV. If you know how to use Linux, you might be able to pick up a fourth podcast!
Yeah not going to happen. Might happen to government, but not banks.
Banks are incentivized by profit, and being offline pose extreme risk to profit. Government are just mostly self promoting bureaucracy until something goes really wrong, and then it's still the same bureaucracy.
Banks are also incentivized by costs, both real and perceived. security is a perceived cost, easy to discount until it happens. This is why ATMs run very old operating systems, for example.
Capitalism isn't magic pixie dust that makes everything good.
