July 21, 2009 2:22PM # Lock It Down, Centralize It, Federalize It By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE Speaking of the Center for Democracy and Technology, Leslie Harris gave a terrific quote to Forbes​.com for an [article on cybersecurity](http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/20/cybersecurity-obama-economy-technology-security-cybersecurity.html): > The Rockefeller-Snowe Bill represents just the sort of heavy-handed regulation that could stifle innovation and hurt the economy, argues Leslie Harris, president and chief executive of the Center for Democracy and Technology. “If you lock things down too tight and try to centralize and federalize all kinds of standards, you’re on a collision course with the innovators who may be making the next great tech product in their backyard,” she says. The question is why CDT [doesn’t apply this thinking](http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1232) to the field of identification and credentialing. ##### Related Tags [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).