A New Internet?

By Guy Bunker | February 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In an articlein the New York Times this weekend John Markoff asks if we need a new Internet to solve some of the issues that seem to be plaguing the one we have at present.

This request or discussion has been going on for a while and seems to crop up every time there is a large virus outbreak (Downadup / Conficker in this case) or a large Denial of Service (DoS) event. So… can it be done? Could we create a better Internet? Of course the answer is yes – but the real question is would we want to? Would we be able to transition from one to the other and would the issues in today’s Internet be unable to rear their ugly heads in the new one? That’s a more difficult question – and one in which the answers are probably no and no.

If we were to switch off the current Internet, global *everything* would grind to a halt while the transition to a new improved, more ‘secure’ one happened – no more Internet banking or shopping, no more booking tickets, or transferring money, no more research for homework… it’s not looking good is it? Of course most would not be able to transition and if it used the same infrastructure, then at the end of the day DDoS would still be an issue. Even if we all had identity cards to allow us access to the new Internet (hopefully making it easier to track down cyber-criminals etc) we would still have problems – as soon as the cards had been cloned or a legitimate system had been hacked and taken over, then many of the problems that are around today will also be on the new version. Does this mean we shouldn’t consider a new Internet? No, of course not – but we need to make it an evolutionary approach to what we have and accept that it will never be perfect. Improving security on the Internet, in applications and in the way data is handled is critically important, we need effective reputation based services and vastly improved ID systems and management. As new systems are developed by ‘the good guys’ so ‘the bad guys’ will find a way to break them – the Internet is a war zone and the battles continuously rage. Moving the war to a new location won’t make the battles stop.

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