My point was that security is sufficient for the time being. Right now, the only thing that has managed to actually penetrate computer security is a Reaper, and other countermeasures were sufficient to stop it. We already have Blackboxing- good blackboxing even. And really, Lasers aren't complicated. Using Arc Reactors to power bigger ones isn't an enormous leap.
And complaining that the Batarians are going to steal it is paranoid. Maybe they will. That will require them breaking into an Alliance Warship or yard and stealing data or samples, which will be rather difficult and time consuming, but maybe they will. Maybe they'll even crack the Blackboxing. At which point they'll be in the same position as China is in the real world with the data they stole on the F-35- they'll be testing prototypes while the Alliance is building/refitting ships by the hundreds. So yes, the Batarians might end up fielding Laser armed Frigates eventually- but by the time they do, the Alliance will have been operating them for years, will have had time to build an effective doctrine around them, and will probably be in the process of upgrading to higher tier lasers and other toys.
And seriously, I don't think you're understanding the scale here. GWs are a lot of energy, but they're hardly gamebreaking in ME. For reference, a MOAB fuel air bomb releases about 50 Gigajoules of energy. Now, setting a MOAB off every 10 seconds is certainly going to do nasty things to people on the ground, but it's not something that cruisers and frigates can't already do- a Dreadnought's primary is 38 kilotons per shot. A Cruiser or Frigate's gun is shorter and thus weaker, but it's not a stretch to assume that smaller ships can manage at least 10% of that, and assuming you go with the one shot every two seconds number, they're still putting out kilotons per second with their primary. And a kiloton is 4.184 terajoules.
GW range lasers are a nice force multiplier, but they're not a silver bullet.
