Re: DNSSEC and ISPs faking DNS responses

["Roland Dobbins" <rdobbins () arbor net>]

On 14 Nov 2015, at 11:32, Owen DeLong wrote:

> Go out onto the street and ask a random number of people over 30 if 
> they know what a URL is  and how to enter one into a browser.

They don't know what URIs are, nor do they enter them into browsers.  
They type words into a search engine and then click on the resulting 
links.

[I was shocked when I realized this is how non-specialists access Web 
sites, about 15 years or so ago.]

> Today, the average 6 year old can operate a DirectTV satellite system 
> with a relatively high degree of facility.

And has no idea how it actually works, and can't do anything with it 
beyond the obvious.

> What the average person knows changes over time.

Yes, but not in the way you're thinking.  If anything, specialized 
technical knowledge tends to decrease over time, as technology goes from 
being used by a relatively few self-selected enthusiasts to becoming 
more mainstream and accessible to the masses.

Auto mechanics is one example from the physical world.  Cooking is 
another.  Handwriting is yet another.

> Assuming that it does not strikes me as either (1) ignoring history

See above.

> or (2) underestimating the general public even more than I do, which 
> is saying something.

Among the population of Internet users, the knowledge of how the 
Internet actually works has decreased tremendously in the last 20 years, 
as that population has expanded to include non-specialists - e.g., the 
majority.

Most computer users have no idea how computers actually work.  They 
certainly don't know what a VPN is, or how (or why) to set one up.  This 
state of affairs will continue until VPN technology becomes subsumed 
into applications and is enabled as a default, if it ever does.

-----------------------------------
Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () arbor net>