If our television entertainment could be interrupted by a hacker the FCC would out in full force to find and prosecute the outlaw. When people block the flow of traffic in a crowded city, emergency crews are dispatched.

Why do we tolerate Spam, Spyware and Pop-ups that cost us millions in lost time and money spent repairing our computers?

The answer is these outlaw programs and emails are very hard to spot before they damage files or overwhelm our systems. Very clever people worldwide find varied and perverse reasons to write ever more complex and powerful viruses, worms, and spyware.

Look at the extent of the problem. If Nielsen//NetRatings is correct, the average subscriber spends over 12 hours a week surfing the Internet. This is the figure for the USA which is not the world leader in per-person usage.

This means that using Internet has become a part of our lives and as time passes and people find more uses for Internet our reliance on it will grow. Survey firms are currently estimating 700 million total Internet subscribers world wide. If 12 hours a week and 700 million subscribers are accurate then the global weekly usage of Internet is upwards of 8.4 billion hours per week. That many people and that much usage demands attention.

However it goes farther than that. Jupiter, Forrester, and other survey firms estimate growth to a subscriber base of over 2 billion by the end of this decade. To achieve that large a subscriber base safety and security are going to have to get a lot better.

It is long past the time that hardware and software companies collaborate to come up with an effective mechanism for enforcing safe and secure communications. We have the technology.

In our humble opinion, the solution should include the following:

1. Automatic - running 24/7 and without human intervention

2. Be unique to each Person AND PC. This probably indicates firmware - that is software running a discrete chip.
Using a mechanism like a "smart-card" as well as a base station id code seems workable. Microsoft and Intel come to mind as having a vested interest in a solution.

3. Trust - trust is a progression, that is, how much we trust another depends to a great extent on the perceived risk. This should be a "sliding scale" controlled by each individual in the form of a "token" or icon that can be placed on each email to authenticate the source and the level of trust. You recognize the sender and accept it. You don't you reject it.

4. The solution must be both backwards and forwards compatible including the existing installed-base as well a future systems.

The conclusion we arrive at is that Internet has become a public thoroughfare and meeting place analogous to any city's streets and parks and meeting places and should be protected and secure in a like manner. Meeting this challenge is crucial if Internet is to continue and mature as global utility for individuals and corporations alike.

Oh yes, did we say we need the solution now.

Terry and Lisa Wellman

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