America, or anyone, will always be vulnerable to cyberattacks if the internet remains the way it is. But technology is available to change it and make the online experience more secure and authentic. Here’s how:

With a new version of our identity certificate called a Reporter's Credential.

An identity certificate lets you digitally sign any file, such that anyone looking at it can know that it originated with the person who signed it, and that not a single bit has been changed since it was signed.

If anyone presenting themselves as a reporter signs a story, or a video, or a podcast - anything - and subsequently that item is picked up and republished, the digital signature stays with it. Anyone reading it can click on the signature and see that not a single comma has been changed since it was originally signed. Otherwise they'll see a big colorful message stating that the story has been altered.

Now, combine that with the fact that all of our identity certificates carry a measure of their own reliability, and not only does the reader know that the story hasn't been altered, but that the person who wrote it is really who she claimed to be.

The water has been muddied with "electronic signatures" and with digital signatures that are not bound to a person.  Let's be clear that this is different.