Cybersecurity is an important national security issue, but it places civil liberty and personal privacy protections in jeopardy. The debate on whether there are competing interests between national security and individual liberties when having national cybersecurity frameworks will always be an on-going debate.
Lawmakers should bear in mind that not everything can be solely managed by legislation, and that constitutional amendments can establish the principles that the government must observe based on our rights and the nation’s security. Legislation that is ineffective will be struck down by courts when those in concern rise against them, not only that, but reversal of court rulings may lead to conflicting precedents. Thus, when related matters are treated by different personnel in a disparate manner, pieces can shift and problems may arise regardless of whether the problem has been fixed in one area or not.
As history has proven, constitutional amendments are much harder to tamper or alter with as they lay a foundation that can address the issue in concern and limit itself from outgrowing, or even under-growing, its purpose by incorporating checks and balances that would secure rights and fulfil its initial purpose. Thus, a constitutional amendment would lay groundwork and would place parliaments and courts in a position where they do not wildly guess the implementation of laws.
The prevalence of the internet, and the willingness of the general public to share their personal and financial information online, for multiple reasons, is placing policymakers in a situation where they have to grapple on how to extend the guarantees afforded by privacy related articles to the digital world. Nation-wide statutes relating to cybersecurity enable the government to monitor a bulk of information transferred over networks, thus, individuals face the risk of having their privacy rights subjected to threat.
Because of the vulnerabilities that exist in current cybersecurity legislations, and the difficulty in balancing the privacy of individuals with the compelling interests of states; it is therefore important that governments develop a Cybersecurity nation-wide legislation that would in turn address the issue from the top, set precedent, and eliminate these vulnerabilities that exist in current legislation.
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