Computer Security Basics

6.4. Summary

Internet protocols, while they have allowed the internetworking of computers and the distribution of applications, have opened up a host of security issues. The protocols were meant to be robust, not secure. The enemy was never thought to be within. The trust by which computers are able to interact and complete complicated business processes turns out to be the undoing of much business, because sensitive information can be spilled and confidence lost. Further, the attacks that can be accomplished via the Web are crippling, because they can use the Web's flexibility to invade and cripple the computers that are attached to it.

In a way, society might be fortunate that the Internet was built first to be durable. This appearance of dependability allowed it to gain a following, then a foothold, then a share of mind, and finally enough dependence upon it that we now demand its weaknesses be fixed. Had the Internet been created with an isolationist mind, many of its applications and potential applications that we now struggle to protect may never have been developed.