Today’s internet is a vulnerable home for our money
In 'The Unhackable Internet' veteran banking attorney and regulator Tom Vartanian argues for replacing today's Internet with a new, more secure network for financial business. Is he crazy — or a prophetic Cassandra for the age of digital money?
Are Americans willing to sacrifice convenience and ease of use to conduct their digital financial lives in a safer environment?
Or will they continue to bank and invest on an Internet that resembles a game of Jenga? An Internet where the next attack could be the one to take down the tower, in an age when artificial intelligence threatens to further amplify risks that have been there since the beginning of digital banking?
And even if consumers are willing to go along with change to produce safety, will legislators and regulators have the backbone to help make it happen?
Tom Vartanian poses such questions in his book, “The Unhackable Internet: How Rebuilding Cyberspace Can Create Real Security and Prevent Financial Collapse.” He has deep worries about all three, but he’s not a paranoid layman. Vartanian is a career financial regulator and attorney, and for a time was in the running for the regulatory vice-chairman post at the Federal Reserve. And he has a professional interest in disaster: His last book was “200 Years of American Financial Panics.” (He was among the first experts we contacted during the 2023 banking crisis.)
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