[neotoy] Future of the Internet Question (uncut)
2TRANSCRIPT:
Recently I read The National Academy of Engineering's list titled: The 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering. Overall this is a shortsighted and poorly prioritized list, however it does raise a few important points that I find relevant to the OECD forum.
For example, Question #11. Securing cyberspace: How do you protect the global information infrastructure from identity theft, viruses and other threats without bogging down the flow of data?
In my opinion, answering this question is critical to both the future of the internet economy and the resultant economic benefits shared by developing nations.
The internet has a massive yet virtually unacknowledged taboo, the stigma of identity vs. anonymity. The openness of the internet is an obvious and integral asset for its continued health and prosperity, however, without any restrictive measures it becomes impossible to prevent or even limit the number of security threats faced by the average internet user. As the network expands management becomes an increasing challenge, and eventually monopolizes all the time and resources of the various industries that allow it to function and thrive.
This is a problem. The solution is simple, we need an open and innovative internet like the current model, and we need a secure internet that requires identification and prevents illegal activity. We need an internet duality. Two discreet zones united by a single global network, yet separated semantically by a wall of unbreakable encryption.
The power of distributed computing makes this possible. The computational mass of a secure network can be leveraged to encrypt and decrypt data at levels previously unimagined while simultaneously allowing the security system to scale as the network grows. This leaves external threats without the resources necessary to compromise the network, and will create an environment where communication and commerce can be as secure as is mathematically possible.
It's time for our networks to stop being passive conduits that are vulnerable to assault and exploitation, they should be proactively making themselves and us more secure. Until that happens, how can we realistically expect the internet to provide a stable economic platform? Given the trends in security the opposite is true, every year the internet becomes less safe, how much longer can we afford to wait?