David Orrell | CNBC
Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Washington-based Aspen Institute think tank, has long been looking for a virtual "clean slate."
In light of the Cambridge Cyber Summit , Isaacson told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that those seeking online security would be better served by a new type of internet where users are verified and authenticated by secure IDs.
"We don't have rules of the road when it comes to cyber," the former CNN chief and ex-editor of Time magazine said.
The author of the best-selling "Steve Jobs" biography insisted that the three groups who collectively have the largest impact on cybersecurity ― government intelligence, industry giants likeFacebook andGoogle and people in the academic world who can fix security issues ― are disconnected.
And with trillions of dollars and countless IQ points, as Isaacson put it, being spent on maintaining security, he wondered whether there could be a chance to rebuild the system and promote safety from the start.
Hosted by The Aspen Institute, CNBC and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Cambridge Cyber Summit is being held Wednesday in the Massachusetts city.
