The U.S. public health system increased life expectancy by more than 30 years since 1900 through systematic data collection, evidence-based intervention, and coordinated response. This paper examines whether cybersecurity can benefit from similar organizational principles. We find that both domains exhibit public good characteristics: security improvements create positive externalities that individual actors cannot fully capture, leading to systematic market failure and underinvestment. Current cybersecurity lacks fundamental infrastructure including standardized population definitions, reliable outcome measurements, understanding of transmission mechanisms, and coordinated intervention testing. Drawing on public health's transformation from fragmented local responses to coordinated evidence-based discipline, we propose a national Cyber Public Health System for systematic data collection, standardized measurement, and coordinated response. We argue government coordination is economically necessary rather than merely beneficial, and outline specific federal roles in establishing standards, funding research, coordinating response, and addressing information asymmetries that markets cannot resolve.

翻译：自1900年以来，美国公共卫生系统通过系统性数据收集、循证干预和协调响应，将人均预期寿命提高了30年以上。本文探讨网络安全领域能否从类似的组织原则中获益。研究发现两个领域均呈现公共产品特性：安全改进会产生正外部性，个体行为者无法完全获取其收益，从而导致系统性市场失灵和投资不足。当前网络安全领域缺乏基础性基础设施，包括标准化的群体定义、可靠的结果度量、对传播机制的理解以及协调的干预测试。借鉴公共卫生从碎片化的地方响应转变为协调的循证学科的经验，我们提出建立国家网络公共卫生系统，以实现系统性数据收集、标准化度量和协调响应。我们认为政府协调在经济上是必要的而非仅仅有益，并概述了联邦政府在建立标准、资助研究、协调响应以及解决市场无法克服的信息不对称等方面的具体职责。