The Internet Ends Here . Com

One of 'the world's leading' academics, Professor Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance at the Oxford Internet Institute, has warned that the internet may come to an end under the weight of... <cue dramatic music>... malicious code.

Unconfirmed reports say that yesterday an acorn fell off a tree, and may have struck the Professor on the head. Whether that inspired his dire warning that the entire cyber world is doomed, is not certain.

But this much we do know. Zittrain has called for the internet to be locked down. Not just by any old software either. No. He has called for a solution that "does not destroy the creativity and openness that made the internet such an enormous success in the first place."

Andrew Clarke, senior VP at Lumension Security was quick to offer advice which we are sure is totally unbiased by any commercial considerations.

"We now operate in a chaotic security environment," he warned. "Only by turning security on its head to enforce a known-good state, can cyber crime be addressed."

Taking the Internet down, until we have a known-good state, with no
known-unknowns, and certainly no unknown-unknowns, may be expensive. But it will be worth it.

"[Everyone] needs to consider deploying technologies that monitor and only allow known good applications or devices to connect to their PC or network," he warned.

OK, he admitted, this 'whitelisting' approach could impact productivity.
But the alternative - a world where no one invests in Lumension Security solutions - could be very frightening indeed.

Org. Source : http://www.theinquirer.net, By Nick Booth: Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 9:22 AM