Software liability has been dubbed the “third rail of cybersecurity policy.” But the Biden administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy directly takes it on, seeking to shift liability onto those who should be taking reasonable precautions to secure their software.
What should a software liability regime look like? Jim Dempsey, a Senior Policy Adviser at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, recently published a paper as part of Lawfare’s Security by Design project entitled “Standards for Software Liability: Focus on the Product for Liability, Focus on the Process for Safe Harbor,” where he offers a proposal for a software liability regime.
Lawfare Senior Editor Stephanie Pell sat down with Jim to discuss his proposal. They talked about the problem his paper is seeking to solve, what existing legal theories of liability can offer a software liability regime and where they fall short, and his three-part definition for software liability that involves a rules-based floor and a process-based safe harbor.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sanctions Past, Present, and Future with OFAC Director Brad Smith
Justin Sherman on Senator Wyden’s Investigation of Near Intelligence Inc.
The Justices Figure Out that Internet Law Is Hard
How Much Trouble is NATO Really In? with Scott R. Anderson
Rational Security: The “Fast and the Furry-us” Edition
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: Delays in Florida and D.C.
Lawfare Archive: Alina Polyakova on the Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Breaking Down the Fireworks in Fulton County
Chatter: President Biden’s Foreign Policy with Alex Ward
Intimidation of State and Local Officeholders with Maya Kornberg
The Authoritarian Playbook in 2025
Joel Braunold on the State of the Gaza Crisis
Lawfare Archive: Christopher Moran on ‘Company Confessions: Secrets, Memoirs, and the CIA’
Rational Security: The “Licking the Cow” Edition
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations: A Wild and Woolly Week
Lawfare Archive: Jim Baker on FISA Errors
Itsiq Benizri on the EU AI Act
Chatter: Life and Death in Ukraine with Journalist Christopher Miller
Jonathan Cedarbaum and Matt Gluck on the NDAA’s Cyber Provisions
Constitutional Law, International Law, and the State
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
It’s Complicated
Morning Joe
Today, Explained
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
The Daily