Future history reports on Internet's demise

[dave () farber net]

To: ip () v2 listbox com
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 10:44 -0400
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Dave Farber  +1 412 726 9889



...... Forwarded Message .......
From: George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky () attglobal net>
To: dave () farber net
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 10:23:01 -0400
Subj: For IP if you like

Dave,

In view of the forthcoming meltdown conference, I thought this column 
would be of interest.

George

> http://gcn.com/23_16/tech-report/26347-1.html
>
> Future history reports on Internet's demise
> 06/28/04
> By Robert Gellman
> Special to GCN
>
> This obituary is "preprinted" from a future edition of Government 
> Computer News.
>
> Today the Internet was pronounced dead. The immediate cause of death 
> was universal disinterest.
>
> For decades, the Net had been a free and open network that allowed 
> anyone to send e-mail, publish information, provide services or sell 
> products. Internet fever fueled a stock market boom in the 1990s 
> that made startup companies into household names. Then huge losses 
> resulted when business dried up from declining Net use. The Internet 
> auction business finally disintegrated because of persistent fraud.
>
> There were many contributing causes to the Internet's death. 
> Viruses, worms and government filters were some. Other factors 
> included:
>
>     * Phishing. Phishers, or cyberthieves, pretended to be trusted 
> service providers in order to induce people to disclose personal 
> information for use in identity theft scams. Phishers duped hundreds 
> of millions of people. Legitimate companies suffered because many 
> consumers, unable to distinguish the real from the fraudulent, 
> ignored all commercial e-mail and Internet activities.
>
>     * Spam. Despite worldwide efforts, governments could not stop 
> unsolicited e-mail, which became the overwhelming majority of all 
> e-mail messages. Several members of Congress who touted legislative 
> solutions were defeated for re-election when disgruntled Net users 
> held them accountable for the failure of their legislation. Another 
> spam victim was the Federal Trade Commission, which Congress 
> abolished years ago in frustration over the commission's inability 
> to protect consumers against spam and Internet fraud. One 
> beneficiary was the Postal Service, which boomed when regular mail 
> came back into vogue.
>
>     * Spyware. Keystroke loggers, browser hijackers and other forms 
> of spyware did considerable damage. Browser hijackers changed 
> settings, sent users to porn sites and prevented normal browser use. 
> Some people lost jobs or went to jail because of child porn or 
> classified materials placed on their computers by hackers. Some 
> employees refused to use computers connected to the Internet for 
> fear of losing their jobs.
>
>     * Advertising. An escalating war between pop-up ads and ad 
> blockers raged for years, with the ads always one step ahead. 
> Aggressive adware also contributed to declining Internet usage as 
> people often could see nothing but ads.
>
>    * URL redirection. Hackers became adept at pointing browsers to 
> their own sites, and users couldn't tell whether they had reached 
> the correct uniform resource locator or a copycat site. Search 
> engines suffered from redirection and became significantly less 
> helpful.
>
> The Internet is survived by wholly private networks and e-mail systems.
>
> Like gated communities, they offer some traditional Internet 
> functions, but at a stiff price. Private networks aggressively 
> authenticate users, check e-mail and scan attachments. Most allow 
> access only to accredited sites and send e-mail only to and from 
> authenticated accounts. All network activities are encrypted to 
> guard against interception and hijacking. Most Web sites are open 
> only to paying customers because of the costly, weekly 
> re-accreditation mandated by private networks.
>
> The Internet is mourned by all those who now pay higher prices for 
> fewer services.
>
> Robert Gellman is a Washington privacy and information policy consultant.
>
> --
> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
> + Robert Gellman                            +
> + Privacy and Information Policy Consultant +
> + 419 Fifth Street SE                      +
> + Washington, DC 20003                     +
> + 202-543-7923        <rgellman () netacc net> +
> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +


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