Cyber-weapons as a form of magic, and why we can't code our way to a safer internet

It's not an object you can blow up with a missile or send a UN team to inspect, but the technical knowledge of how to identify and exploit a set of systems, written clearly enough that a computer can do it. It's a recipe that can make millions of copies of itself even as it bakes the cake it describes, and even if all copies were to be deleted, all it would take to recreate it is a single person with the technical knowledge writing it down again. It's a poem that, written down, unread by human eyes, causes havoc in the real world. You might as well apply the concepts of "deterrence" and "arms control" to a rumor. By calling them "weapons," politicians and the military, while reflecting the uses for them they desire and fear, misunderstand their nature.