How Developers Can Rebuild Trust On the Internet

snydeq writes: Public keys, trusted hardware, block chains — InfoWorld's Peter Wayner discusses tech tools developers should be investigating to help secure the Internet for all. 'The Internet is a pit of epistemological chaos. As Peter Steiner posited — and millions of chuckles peer-reviewed — in his famous New Yorker cartoon, there's no way to know if you're swapping packets with a dog or the bank that claims to safeguard your money,' Wayner writes. 'We may not be able to wave a wand and make the Internet perfect, but we can certainly add features to improve trust on the Internet. To that end, we offer the following nine ideas for bolstering a stronger sense of assurance that our data, privacy, and communications are secure.'

Comments

Re:ball-bearings, tire spikes, sand, and debris

[Anonymous Coward]

No part of life is anywhere near as safe, or secure, as the current internet already is.

No part of life is as optional, either.

anyone from across the planet can show up, 'accidentally' drop sand and ball bearings and tire spikes and chunks of metal

All of these things are visible. People stealing credentials from a server that I don't control is not.

There is NOTHING that stops my car from flying off the highway at 140kph and falling 2'000 feet off the mountain.

Guardrail.

There is something stopping my car from slamming into an on-coming car -- at an impart[sic] speed of 280 kph, by the way -- there's a two-inch strip of yellow paint; sometimes two.

Yes. Very visible yellow paint. Also, the threat of pain and death to the drivers of both vehicles.

And if I'm not mistaken, 280 kph (168 mph) is way too damned fast for anyone to be traveling on a highway. Were you making the mistake of adding the speeds of two vehicles together to get the impact speed? It doesn't work that way. If both cars are going 140 kph (84 mph), then the speed that each car decelerates from is 140 kph. Neither car is put under the strain of decelerating from 280. The only point that receives the equivalent of 280 kph of force is the standing-still neutral observer smashed in the middle. It receives a crushing force equivalent to deceleration from 280. No part of the moving vehicles can receive that much force solely from that impact.

every single day there're another many traffic collisions

Because people are dumb and lazy and inattentive.

every single day, multiple people die in those collisions

Because people are dumb and lazy and inattentive.

It's so continuous, that the city actually pays for tow-trucks to sit at the edge of the highway in order to clear away accidents that much faster.

Tow trucks aren't going to help you if you're dead. The city pays for those trucks to clear wrecks out of the way so more wrecks don't occur due to impeded flow of traffic. Because people are dumb and lazy and inattentive.

The internet is good enough as-is. Try focusing on the roads please.

The roads are good enough as-is, if everyone follows the damned rules. Just like the internet.

How about we trust hospitals to not screw up during surgery.

We already do.

How about we work on having enough water next year

I don't worry about water in Missouri. Your problems are not universal.

or food during droughts

See previous snarky comment.

work on not killing people with military super-powers.

That one is above my pay-grade.

supposed to be using technology... as tools to solve real-life problems. This article discusses uses tools to solve problems with other tools... It's called one-upmanship, and it creates better criminals.

No, it's called "security". No security is perfect. Ever. You already called attention to the insecurity of your front door. But if all your worldly possessions were laying on your front lawn, what are the odds somebody wouldn't just come along and take them? The "insecure" front door provides 1) a minimum level of resistance and 2) a legal line-in-the-sand, both of which the intruder must overcome to be successful. Criminals are going to be as good at being criminals as they need to be. You have to make the value proposition worse in order for most of them to stop. We just haven't reached that point yet on the internet.

Solve the global food problem.

Solve your priorities problem. You're whining that everyone, everywhere should drop what they're doing and solve a single specific human-rights issue that is basically a weapon of war because pictures of the victims of war put you off your grub? Really? Fuck you.