Curran's argument is that as we become more and more connected, we increase our collective vulnerability to mass-scale breakdowns and manipulation. While he certainly isn't the first to point out that our increasingly digital lives come at a cost, the scholar warn s that it will take a "systemic digital crisis" before anything changes. As Curran puts it: "there are good reasons to believe that little will be done about these risks until a massive society-wide crisis emerges."
Visualize any system's defenses against failure-a biological immune system, or a healthcare delivery system, or an aircraft control system-as a series of slices of delicious, creamy Emmentaler cheese. Each layer has a couple of holes (vulnerabilities) in it, of varying size, here and there, but as long as the holes are not aligned with each other, no threat to the system can pass all the way through all the layers,
In his blog, posted on Thursday, Broeksmit warned that a Fannie-Freddie merger would harm competition and increase risks in the U.S. housing finance system, noting that a similar idea was put forward by the National Economic Council in September 2016 and received careful review across the industry before ultimately being rejected. Competition between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been central to their success in providing liquidity and stability to the mortgage market, Broeksmit wrote.