Internet Security History
To become secure on the internet, it is necessary to learn a little bit about how the internet works. Generally speaking, the more secure you want to be, the more you have to knowledge, hassle and money you need to deal with. This article attempts to concisely explain how one can achieve internet secure and anonymous email transactions.
At its heart, the Computer Security merely provides a method for two computers to talk to one another. It gives every computer connected to it a distinctive number, called the IP (Internet Protocol) address. When one computer wishes to talk to another, it sends a message out into the gut of the internet. This message is like a postcard in the mail, it has a destination IP address, a message (which can be pages long, or as short as a single letter), and a return IP address. Usually the first message sent is a request for information, and the return address is used to form a reply, and perhaps a reverse request for information. Like real postcards, these messages can be read, very easily, by anyone who works at or lurks around the "post office", aqua, and the internet.
At first, when the internet was small and obscure, no one was really concerned with how open the messages were to being read. A few people took the moderate step of opening an anonymous email address, which would forward email to another account without the sender being aware of the ultimate address. Hackers had a field day during these years, sniffing out password information from the stream going back and forth, and setting up accounts for themselves on business and educational servers, getting free dialup service and long-distance in the mix. This was all for fun, and despite their lack of malicious intent and minor economic drain, hackers were much maligned in the media, especially when businesses started marketing the internet. A few hacks showing potentially serious consequences, such as obtaining the credit card records of AOL subscribers, modifying government and corporate websites, and the hint was gotten in a big way.
Corporations understood that if these playful cyberpunk kids could get access to this information, then eventually so would thieves and swindlers. And this realization dawned as businesses started feeling pressure to actually turn some revenue over their internet investments. That meant there had to be a way for people to type in their credit card numbers without having a third party oversee them. This was the perfect use for a method of encryption developed in the '60s, This gibberish could be decoded by hackers willing to spend years working on each message, but this was considered a sufficient obstacle to eavesdropping on credit card numbers that the public would feel safe. And because encryption falls into the category of "exponential increase" problems, the additional complexity in encryption that is used today has led to estimates that covert eavesdropping of credit card information would take millions of years to decode.
With online transaction having been made safe by encryption, and hacking declared felonious through federal legislation, the heat came off and the internet investment bubble began in earnest. Oh, the people who worked heavily with the computers that provide internet service quietly began using encrypted protocols and installing secure equipment behind-the-scenes, but few of these advancements made it into the software that the public uses at-large.
However, it is available. It just takes more work to learn how to use it. If more people learn how to use it, and demand privacy for the internet communications, new software will incorporate it and make it easier to use. These tutorials are designed to start by explaining the easiest ways to obtain additional security, then progress to methods which are more secure, and finally link to resources for those who are inclined to develop truly top-notch.
Internet Security - Firewall - Security Software - Computer Security - Network Security - Intrusion Detection
|
