| Home | Introduction | Security Flaws | Cases Involving Hackers | Obama Administration Addressing Internet Security | Advantages of Internet Security | Federal Regulation | Software | Conclusion | Bibliography |
Security Flaws
Noted by Cha, the Internet was originally created by the Defense Department, but now is the central source of communication for people all throughout the world run by government agencies, companies, educational departments, organizations, and individuals (2005). " Hackers, viruses, worms, spam, spyware and phishing sites have proliferated to the point where it's nearly impossible for most computer users to go online without falling victim to them. Last year, the Carnegie Mellon University CERT Coordination Center logged 3,780 new computer security vulnerabilities, compared with 1,090 in 2000 and 171 in 1995. Computer security firm Symantec Corp. over the past decade has catalogued 11,000 vulnerabilities in 20,000 technologies, affecting 2,000 vendors"(Cha, 2005, p.1). According to Cha (2005), some bugs in the internet are part of its 'top layer' of software, the programs that come loaded on new computers, or that can be bought in the store. However, some issues were built into the networks core design, which was written decades ago, and are likely invisible to the average user. Hackers can roam the network anonymously, while "the system that matches addresses to Web sites is vulnerable to hackers, redirecting users to sites they never wanted to visit"(Cha, 2005, p.1). In the words of Cha (2005), the original designers did not design for problems such as viruses. They built the network to endure outside threats such as tornados, or nuclear wars. They spent very little time focusing on internal problems. Besides, only a few hundred closely linked people had access to the first version of the Internet, so they just built it without security(p.2). Lynch, an engineer at the Stanford Research Institute and at the University of Southern California in the 1970s helped develop the Internet's framework, believes that the Internet will never truly be secure. There's too many restrictions that true security would place on everyday users. If any software or device has a flaw, it can flaw the whole Internet system (Cha, 2005, p.3).