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

Make security mandatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Require that closed source software is clearly labeled as such.
Ban closed source software in public administration.
Ban closed source software on portable devices, ie. devices that someone may carry near other people without their decision.
Make secure code a legal requirement in all products sold in the market and require insurance from provider to cover different fines for bugs with different levels of seriousness. Apply the same legal requirement and fines for services where personal information is used.

If something fails, the company responsible needs to pay for it regardless of how unavoidable it may be. We, the consumer, can not care about the technical difficulties. We can demand security.

Nada

[DivineKnight]

Sorry, we're too busy training our replacements. Perhaps they can help you....

Re:UK Government will oppose it

[ArcadeMan]

With all the "Think of the terrorists" and "Think of the children" crap we keep reading about, how about launching "Think of the terrorist children"? That'll throw a wrench into their insane ideas.