> What is the externalized cost of this crisis on the entire country? One natural solution would be to subsidize cyberdefense. The political difficulty is that

> What is the externalized cost of this crisis on the entire country? One natural solution would be to subsidize cyberdefense. The political difficulty is that a rational subsidy would be proportional to the harm of an attack, which would mean giving the most money to the biggest corporations. The best solution would be for the firm to raise their prices the very small amount necessary to cover the expense, and for consumers to tolerate the expense because they know it's worth it. But a pipeline is a natural monopoly, presumably charging a monopoly-optimal price that (correctly) assumes a populace ignorant of such concerns until it's too late.