John Markoff, of The New York Times, wrote an article on Saturday, February 14, 2009, which states that because Internet privacy and security has become so maddingly elusive, the best way to solve our current cyber-security problem is to build a "new and improved" Internet. What this new Internet may look like is the subject of wide debate, but many researchers feel that the money being devoted to patching the current problems facing the Internet would be better utilized at building another version of itself. Some visions of the new Internet include it being a gated community, whereby venturing beyond the gates is done at the users own peril. The idea is to build a new Internet with improved security and the capabilities to support a new generation of not-yet-invented Internet applications, as well as to do some things the current Internet does poorly — such as supporting mobile users. But how do these researchers know that what has "not-yet-been-invented" will be any more or less secure on the new Internet?
The problem that researchers are having to deal with, in building the new Internet verison, is the reduction in exisiting usage features that we currently enjoy while surfing through the Internet (i.e. anonymity). Will people be willing to give up their anonymity in order to accommodate a more controlled environment? Some organizing body will have access to the surfing habits of those within the new Internet, who will oversee them to ensure that the information is carefully handled and not used for commercial purposes? By creating another level to work from in the Internet, will this create a greater divide between technologically savvy users, and those who are less savvy? Will the disparity look much like economic disparities between wealthy and developing nations? What the researchers at fine academic institutions like Stanford and Purdue cannot take into account, in building a newer Internet, is those fundamental precepts that are not within their control – namely the ingenuity of the cyber-thief. Thus, I cannot see how the newest version of the Internet would be any more or less safer than the existing one. The only way to truly fight the problem of cyber-security is to change our habits and attitudes toward how we give out information. The laws, by the time they are passed, are antiquated, and the loopholes will always out-pace the patches.
To read Mr. Markoff’s article, please click here: Do We Need A New Internet?