Down on the Farm: Inventing a New Internet

For the past (gulp) 30 years*, one of the most authoritative voices about computer and Internet security has been John Markoff , who's spent the majority of that time writing about technology for The New York Times. The book he co-authored with Tsutomu Shimomura in 1996 -- Takedown, about the capture of cyber criminal Kevin Mitnick -- is still a must-read on my booklist.
So, when I noticed Markoff's latest article, entitled "A New Internet? The old one is putting us in jeopardy," on this rainy Sunday,I curled up with my laptop and a cup of coffee, certain I'd learn some things.

Indeed I did. That team of researchers down at Stanford that has been quietly trying to reinvent the Internet and plug some of its most glaring security glitches is apparently further along than I thought they would be by now, because they will be releasing their beta version on eight campuses as soon as the end of this summer.

The urgency behind this effort has accelerated since the emergence last year of Conficker, the vaguely obscene-sounding, malicious software assault apparently launched by a criminal gang in Eastern Europe that brought down the French military's computer network, among other assets.

Markoff quotes experts about the "ticking time bomb" and the "digital Pearl Harbor" we are currently facing. Yikes. So, before heading out to watch that next scary movie, I'd recommend reading this piece -- then you can get really scared!

* (Note: Back around 1979, John Markoff and I collaborated on a series of articles about computer technology and civil liberties.)