Internet Security and Privacy at stake
Ever since the news broke out about the wide spread
surveillance programmes through monitoring and interception of communications of
individuals and organizations alike, the confidence of an average internet user
is fast eroding in the security policies of the internet which seemed fool
proof at least in terms of high end communications, such as ATM transactions
and private communication networks.
Nobody any longer would want to believe the technology that used to rely on is secure and cannot be deciphered and analyzed for any length of time. The world has come to know bitterly that internet is not secure no matter what the encryption standards are no matter how private a network is, no matter what the industry has to offer.
But detailed media reports in the recent times showing how
monitoring agencies carried out the surveillance, left many users high and
sundry. Private organizations have alleged secret surveillance of their
businesses and black listing them out for continued surveillance can sum up the
seriousness of the issue. The data about how an organization is going to
conduct their business in the near future can practically be damaging to the
interests of a private business.
In other instances individuals are reported to have been
fooled into believing that they are communicating or logging into servers of
giants like Google is quite alarming. There are allegations in the media about
surveillance agencies carrying out Man in the Middle (MITM) attacks thereby
intercepting and routing the user generated traffic to servers belonging to
surveillance networks without the user not knowing is quite alarming.
Industry experts are already pointing towards the damage
these findings are causing to the internet industry world wide. The biggest
names in the internet industry like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others are
tight lipped and have confirmed of giving out data belonging to consumers to
surveillance agencies when there are specific requests from the government.
What this corresponds to is whether anybody has committed a crime or not you
are going to be monitored. Even the banking transactions over secure tunnels of
ATM network is not out of the purview of surveillance, which means any body
using any thing on the internet is under constant surveillance. Whether they
write emails, conduct monetary transaction, shop online or even read any material,
someone out there is watching you.
Though the technology is highly enabling but constant and
relentless requests by the governments can scare away even legal and law
abiding entities who want their business transactions and other lawful business
plans coming into the domain of intelligentsia could spell the doom for the
industry.
Nobody any longer would want to believe the technology that used to rely on is secure and cannot be deciphered and analyzed for any length of time. The world has come to know bitterly that internet is not secure no matter what the encryption standards are no matter how private a network is, no matter what the industry has to offer.
Decades of innovation, research and design has come under
intense scrutiny that has given rise to plethora of questions, whether the
internet is going to be a secure, fast, reliable, anywhere, anytime
communication technology is going to be seen in the near future.
An ISP can track you, a hacker could break into your network,
a surveillance network can intercept your online data, cyber criminals looting
your private data from public entities such as hospitals, insurance companies,
banks. How is it going to be any safer on the internet?
For Further Reading :
Discussing Internet Privacy issues
For Further Reading :
Discussing Internet Privacy issues
