You are here

Home

February 2009

The Open Internet's Growing Security Problem -- Part II

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2009-02-02 16:48

Evidence mounts that the real problem on the Internet, is not that it is not open/neutral enough, but that it is not as safe/secure as it needs to be. (Part I)

  • Public policy priorities are really warped when there is so much discussion about addressing an unproven and potential net neutrality problem, and relatively little discussion about addressing the very real, serious and growing Internet safety/security problems.

Mounting evidence: 

"Cyber-Scams on the Uptick in downturn:" Wall Street Journal

  • "Experts and law enforcement officials who track Internet crime say scams have intensified in the past six months as fraudsters take advantage of economic confusion and anxiety to target both consumers and businesses." 
    • "Cyber-assaults on many banks have doubled in the past six months in the U.S."     

"70 of Top 100 Web Sites Spread Malware" Information Week

  • "That represents a 16% increase over the first half of 2008."

"Website infection rising, warns Websense" PortalIT News

»

Comcast Successfully Rebuts Latest FCC Staff Inquiry into Reasonable Network Management

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2009-02-03 18:45

To the extent the FCC is fair and remains focused on encouraging competition and innovation, Comcast's response to the FCC staff's latest inquiry -- asking for clarification of Comcast's reasonable network management practices-- should largely put this particular matter to rest.

  • By way of background, two days before the transition of Administrations, FCC staff sent Comcast a letter asking for clarification of why Comcast's competitive voice offering uses a different part of the network than Internet-driven VOIP services; and if it does use a different part of the network, why that competitive service should not then be regulated as a telecommunications service.
  • In a nutshell, Comcast's response showed that it is operating precisely as the law/FCC/Supreme Court has directed and allowed. 

I am writing about this from a Net Competition perspective, because this isolated staff inquiry appears to:

»

Britain Rejects Net Neutrality as Investment Barrier -- for Next Generation Broadband Networks

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2009-02-04 13:52

The British Government flatly rejected imposing net neutrality in Britain because it is a barrier to investment and innovation in next generation networks, according to the recently released "Digital Britain" report, which lays out Britain"s digital strategy for the future.

  • The relevant net neutrality text is brief, clear and quoted in its entirety below: 

 

From Section 2.1 Next Generation Networks:

"ACTION 2

Between now and the full Digital Britain Report, the Government will, while recognising existing investments in infrastructure, work with the main operators and others to remove barriers to the development of a wider wholesale market in access to ducts and other primary infrastructure.

»

Implications of User Location Tracking -- The Growing Privacy-Publicacy Faultline -- Part II

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2009-02-04 18:18

The 'publicacy' trend, where technology increasingly makes public what used to be private, has reached another noteworthy milestone -- the popularization of location tracking of people via smart-phones. 

  • Google just launched a new free app for smart phones, Google Latitude, that uses location-technology to track users' physical movements and to and share those movements or locations with others.  

    Lets look at how this new development increases tension underneath the growing "privacy-publicacy faultline" that I described in my post on World Privacy Day last month.

    • I have three takeaways.

    First, the obviousness of the "creepy" publicacy factor in this instance -- forced more respect for privacy concerns.

»

"Happy little bunny rabbit dreams" is what Internet's Architect calls net neutrality assumptions

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2009-02-05 12:31

David Clark, the chief protocol architect of the pre-commercial Internet, recently said: "The network is not neutral and never has been," and dismissed "as 'happy little bunny rabbit dreams" the assumptions of net neutrality supporters that there was once a "Garden of Eden" for the Internet" -- per excellent coverage of Mr. Clark's remarks at GMU by the Washington Internet Daily.

  • Mr. Clark's exceptional Internet experience coupled with his current work on a Future Internet Design project for the National Science Foundation provide him great credibility in the net neutrality/Internet architecture debate.

Another colorful quote from the Washington Internet Daily's coverage of Mr. Clark's remarks -- cuts to the core of the problem with net neutrality -- that its seriously anti-private-investment:

  • "Investors don't want to pour money into "this open-platform crap" -- a competitive commodity business with high up-front costs and little control over the network."

Bottom line:

Mr. Clark's comments highlight net neutrality's most glaring failing in this serious economic recession -- net neutrality is profoundly anti-investment of private capital, which is a monster problem given that most all of the Internet's varied infrastructure was built by, and depends on, private investment capital.

Net neutrality activists would like everyone to ignore the reality that new government net neutrality restrictions would largely eliminate the opportunity for private investors to profit from innovation and investing in Internet infrastructure.

That's certainly no way to get Internet for everyone...

 

 

»

Amazon's Kindle undercuts its net neutrality stance -- Silicon Valley's Layer Discrimination Scheme?

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2009-02-09 12:44

Amazon's support for net neutrality is becoming blatantly hypocritical, given that it is bundling its Kindle e-book reader network in a way that Amazon argues should be illegal for its broadband competitors.

  • The WSJ reports that Amazon now intends to bundle its Kindle e-book reader with exclusive content from leading author Stephen King.   

Don't get me wrong, I strongly defend Amazon's free-market freedoms to bundle its Kindle e-book reader with exclusive content -- it's the American free enterprise system at work.

»

Extreme Publicacy -- Does Privacy Stand a Chance? -- Growing Privacy-Publicacy Faultline Part III

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2009-02-09 17:19

We now have a glimpse of what extreme publicacy looks like from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who leads the World Wide Web Consortium which oversees the web's standards and development.

  • Remember, "publicacy" -- is a new word to describe the opposite of privacy, and to capture the increasingly-common view in the tech community, that if technology can make information more public -- it should be made more public.

Per Gordon Crovitz' WSJ column today we learned more about the future of extreme "publicacy" on the Internet:

  • "Mr. Berners-Lee now advocates what he calls "linked data," to go beyond today's hypertext and make readily accessible digital information stored in any format from any source. There's a huge amount of data now in various digital formats, but it's hard to find new relationships or correlations. He said the Web could be reorganized so that well-tagged tables of structured information can easily be linked to others. For example, scientists could link data about proteins and genomics to tackle Alzheimer's. Mr. Berners-Lee led the TED crowd in a chant of "Raw data, now!""

»

Congress: Don't Kill the Internet's Golden Goose -- Welcoming Private Investment Capital

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2009-02-11 13:22

It is more important what Congress does not do -- than what it does do -- concerning the final language on broadband in the pending economic stimulus bill.

  • It is critical for economic growth and job creation for Congress not to derail the market competition and private investment dynamic, which is currently very successful for 90+% of the country -- in trying to achieve broadband open access for the <10% of the country that does not have it, or enough of it. 
  • Economically-depressing, open access/net neutrality restrictions on broadband investment are counter-productive in an economic stimulus package.

    Welcoming private investment capital has been the proverbial 'golden goose' that has produced most all of the Internet's many 'golden eggs' of economic growth, job creation and innovation. 

    • Few ever heard of the Internet until the National Science Foundation opened the Internet to private investment capital in the mid-1990's. 
    • In 1996, Congress made it the "policy of the United States to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that exists for the Internet...." 
    • One of the last things the country needs right now is for Congress to unwittingly cripple one of the few relatively healthy segments of the economy, and a critical engine of future economic growth and job creation, with unnecessary open access/net neutrality restrictions.
      • Such restrictions would be disincentives to continue investing private investment capital in the broadband Internet. 

    Public investment to achieve universal broadband for <10% of the country can be, and should be, done cleanly without destroying the private investment incentives for the other 90+% of the country.

»

The Open Internet's Growing Security Problem -- Part III

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2009-02-12 18:12

Evidence continues to mount that the real problem on the Internet is that it is not as safe/secure as it needs to be -- not the popular myth that it is not open/neutral enough. (See previous posts in this ongoing series here: Part I, Part II)

  • It is a sad state of affairs when there is more media and public policy attention paid to addressing potential "open" Internet problems, than to the very real and increasing Internet safety/security problems.

 

More evidence on the seriousness of the Internet's growing security problem:

"The Online Shadow Economy: a billion dollar market for malware authors." MessageLabs White Paper

  • "The shadow Internet economy is worth over $105 billion. Online crime is bigger than the global drug trade."
  • "With little chance of being caught and so much money at stake, it is little wonder that "a huge number of people are involved""
  • "...malware is going to get more common and more virulent..."

 "Corporations Are Inadvertently Becoming the No. 1 Security Threat to Their Own Customers, According to New IBM X-Force(R) Annual Report"

»

Stimulus: Congress rejected mandated open access/net neutrality; affirmed reasonable network management

Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2009-02-13 16:09

In promoting the important goals of extending broadband to all Americans and stimulating the economy, Congress has rejected attempts by net neutrality regulation proponents to broadly impose open access or net neutrality requirements on the marketplace at large -- via the economic stimulus bill. The Congress obviously understood that would not be an economic stimulus, but a wrong-headed, counter-productive depressant to necessary private broadband investment. (see stimulus bill)

  • Importantly, Congress implicitly affirmed the necessity for "reasonable network management"  and also implicitly rejected the core end-to-end network principle of the net neutrality movement -- where they define/accuse any smart network management/innovation as anti-competitive discrimination or infringement of free speech. 

Important takeaways:

First, Congress rejected the House provision mandating "open access" and mandating that the FCC define "open access" in the unprecedented short time of 45 days.

»

Pages

more