An important internet security site was taken down aided and abetted by callous vendors and users. This is just the beginning where free speech online (which is increasingly the only kind of speech that even matters) can be silenced with relative ease.

Equally dangerously, in a highly technological society as ours, these devices can be commandeered to affect vital public institutions.

The current approach is clearly not up to the task. The industry must improve standards. Otherwise, the potential for real harm will require a concerted government action in the form of a regulatory agency to contain the scale of the damage.