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Comment by rickdeckard | Hacker News Reader

> "It's even the government's job to protect against crime"

It's the government's job to protect against crime, but the duty of an individual to take proactive measures against becoming a victim of crime ("Individual Responsibility").

--> They won't put a policeman in front of my house just because I decided to not have a door on my house.

Equally, (and MUCH more explicitly), it's the legal duty of corporations to protect themsselves against crime, especially if they provide critical infrastructure.

--> They won't put police all over my facilities just because I didn't invest in access-control.

--> In this case, I am not in compliance with the law and considered to invite(!) crime

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It's both/and, not either/or. Yes, I have individual responsibility to have a door on my house, and to be careful about walking in sketchy places. And the government has a responsibility to combat crime. Both.

A critical infrastructure company has an obligation to keep their facilities secure. And the government has a responsibility to prevent attacks by foreign actors on critical infrastructure.

> "And the government has a responsibility to prevent attacks by foreign actors on critical infrastructure."

I replied explicitly to "crime", not "foreign actors", let's not conflate those just for a straw-man argument.

Preventing attacks by foreign actors is part of National intelligence and military, this is an entirely different matter. Both are entities facing outwards of a country, not inwards.

But more importantly, their job is not to fulfill the required security duties of a critical infrastructure company to prevent physical/digital attacks against the operation and resilience of its infrastructure.

And even IF they protect such a company in case of an imminent external threat, this is not a replacement for the legally required security compliance.

The critical infrastructure act (US) and directive (EU) mandate strategic measures to take explicitly against terrorist attacks, even natural disasters.

The government won't come to your company and do this job FOR you, they will lock you up and, in the EU, charge you up to xx% of your global annual revenue if they find out you're not doing it.

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