The Internet :Viruses, Malware & Security Issues Abound

(Via WPost) The Internet is now a global electronic communications network made up of hundreds of millions of computers, servers and other devices run by various governments, academic institutions, companies and individuals. As no one entity owns it, the network depends on goodwill to function smoothly.Built by academics when everyone online was assumed to be a "good citizen," the Internet today is buckling under the weight of what is estimated to be nearly a billion diverse users surfing, racing, and tripping all over the network. Hackers, viruses, worms, spam, spyware and phishing sites have proliferated to the point where it's nearly impossible for most computer users to go online without falling victim to them. Last year, the Carnegie Mellon University CERT Coordination Center logged 3,780 new computer security vulnerabilities, compared with 1,090 in 2000 and 171 in 1995. Computer security firm Symantec Corp. over the past decade has catalogued 11,000 vulnerabilities in 20,000 technologies, affecting 2,000 vendors.
The Internet has become so huge - and so misused - that some worry that its power to improve society has been undermined. Now a movement is gathering steam to upgrade the network, to create an Internet 2.0. It is clear that the Internet's potential will never be met unless it's reinvented.Many of the bugs in the Internet are part of its top layers of software, the jazzy, graphics-heavy, shrink-wrapped programs that come loaded on new computers or sold in retail stores. But some of the most critical issues were built into the network's core design, written decades ago and invisible to the average user. The problem with the Internet is that anything you do with it now is worth a lot of money. It's not just about science anymore. The number of users exploded to more than 429 million in 2000 from 45 million in 1995 Some technologists have said the Internet or parts of it are so far gone that it should be rebuilt from scratch, and over the past decade there have been several attempts to do so. But most now agree that the network has become too big and unruly for a complete overhaul.