FTC Blames Country's Mistrust In Online Protection On Mistaken Identities

from the wouldn't-it-be-nice... dept

There's a new study out about how people view the government's role in protecting all of us from cyber-security threats. While the analysis in the article suggests the findings give a "mixed message" that doesn't seem to be true at all. The study says that people think the government should do a better job protecting us, but that they have low opinions of Congress' and the FTC's ability to do that job. Those two things aren't contradictory. Basically, people have seen just how badly Congress and the FTC have mucked up similar attempts on things like stopping spam -- and have an innate sense that any efforts from those two bodies are more likely to be about protecting special interests or "looking good" for campaign literature, rather than actually solving a problem. So, they have no faith in either organization's ability to do anything real to help solve the problem -- and, in fact, they're quite afraid that any actions by either group will simply make things worse, not better. Of course, the most amusing thing in the article is the response from the FTC, defending themselves against the claims of being untrustworthy in fighting these issues: "A lot of times, people get us confused with other agencies." Yeah, you know, I always get the FTC confused with the FDA. Maybe it's time the FTC got a new haircut to stand out a bit.