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Day One Unsecured Base of the Internet |
Unsecured Base of the InternetThe Internet today is still built on the same technologies that existed at it's birth. New technologies have been added on top of the older ones, but the old stuff is still there underneath. Therefore, most of the Internet has no security by default. If you want to have a secure system, you need to do something 'extra' to get it. Think about the telephone system. When you pick up your home telephone and call a friend, there is no encryption. If someone else in your home picks up an extension handset, they can hear what you are saying, and maybe even join the conversation. If you want to 'encrypt' you conversation, you and your friend need to work out some sort of 'code'. Maybe it is a different 'Language' (foreign, or invented), or perhaps you each buy a scrambler that you speak into, and a de-scrambler that you each listen through. The important point here is that at no time does the phone line itself become 'secure'. You and your friend are taking actions to encode your communications before and after they go through the phone system. If you choose to speak in code, for example, that code is still carried exactly as you said it over the phone line, unaltered.
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