The Hindu Business Line : Keeping cyberspace safe

The well-known Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the popular Swiss ski resort Davos has just ended amidst the usual fanfare. There are some who are cynical about the whole event saying it is nothing more than a fashionable jamboree where one would like to be merely seen so as to be counted among major business leaders.

The other view, a little more positive, is that although Davos may not achieve anything concrete and spectacular, it does bring each year the much needed focus to major issues in global business and public governance. The truth possibly lies somewhere in between.

A crucial issue of our times is undoubtedly how to enable peoples of different countries share knowledge and experiences and how to protect channels of communication available for such interaction against being either shut or otherwise interfered with.

Facilitating global communication is a recurrent theme at the Davos conclave, and the one that concluded recently was no exception. Specifically speaking, the WEF usually devotes time to studying problems spawned by the Internet and other cyber tools.

Botnet caution sounded

One dominant concern is how to keep surfing the Net still a pleasurable and innocuous activity that promotes human development and understanding. As one panelist put it at the 2006 meeting, there are both `good guys' and `bad guys' to whom the Net is easily accessible, and there is anxiety that the latter could misuse cyber space and cause harm to the former.

It is in this context that the warning administered to those present at Davos this time by Vint Cerf, looked upon as the Father of the Internet, assumes significance.

According to Cerf, the numbers of botnets (subverted computers) that have immense potential to unleash spam and launch DoS attacks are increasing at an alarming pace, and at least one quarter of the computers in use across the globe could be hijacked in course of time for this evil design.

Similar despondency was voiced by another speaker, Mark Sunner of MessageLabs, who referred to a botnet called Spam Thru, which had ten times the might of other botnets. Interestingly, Spam Thru has its own anti-virus protection that helps it to sideline other botnets.

Sunner's speculation at Davos was that the enormous spurt in traffic on cyber space one saw in late 2006 was possibly evidence of a `testing of the waters' by Spam Thru! The alarm sounded by the two experts can hardly be ignored.

The elusive balance

The response to 9/11 of the US Government to start with, and of others elsewhere in the world later sparked a major debate on issues of security and privacy. The debate has not come to any definite conclusion, and every credible forum in the world continues to evince interest in resolving the apparent conflict between regulation and respect for the individual's freedom to use the Internet without law enforcement and one's own personal rivals trying to snoop.

This was discussed at Davos under the theme `Balancing the need for security with the need for privacy'. Speakers did appreciate that in an age rocked by violence one could not unduly curb security agencies' quest for information. But then this had to be tempered in the interests of protecting the individual's desire for dignity.

As Leonard Schrank, CEO of SWIFT SCRL put it: "Financial intelligence is an important part of the fight against terror but we need the right to audit the government's use of the information that we give them."

Don't you agree that forums like Davos strengthen the movement that pleads for respecting anonymity in cyber space?

Circumspect in cyberspace

Another interesting observation at this session was that the individual who posts information on the Web would have to be responsible and be also conscious that `potentially embarrassing information' needed to be kept away rather than published to avoid complaining later that one's privacy had been violated.

We are only too aware that all kinds of personal data get into the Net and we are shocked that someone who is not exactly well disposed of towards us employs it against us at the most inopportune time. `Anonymity of risks' and `anonymity of threats' were two expressions that were heard at Davos during an off-the-record session on global risk.

These may sound quaint and fanciful, but I believe their implications are enormous, and we need to ponder in our quieter moments so that we become circumspect when we are in cyber space. The introspection that is demanded of us here is especially in the context of the newer and newer technologies to which we are becoming a slave. Web 2.0 (that includes the now popular YouTube where you can post any video of your choice) is a revolution by itself since it encourages sharing of experiences with a world-wide audience.

YouTube co-Founder Chad Hurley was ecstatic about this at Davos. But I feel this has security and privacy connotations that will be understood only after a serious crime takes place. After all live video pictures offer so much of information by way of individual identity that the underworld is bound to exploit it.

VoIP and other technologies

Talking of new technology, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming more and more accepted because it is an inexpensive way to communicate across the globe. (It seems Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is more than pleased that VoIP permits him to retain the same office number that he can use during his extensive travels, especially when he is on his yacht!) According to some experts, VoIP conversations can however be easily broken into, much more than the conventional telephone. But then when even the First World is thrilled about it because of its low costs, how can you restrain the Third World, where expense is a major criterion that scores over all other factors while choosing a medium?

Apart from VoIP, which could well become the poor man's telephone for international contacts, RFID and Sensors (the retail giant WalMart is a great proponent because these help track stocks) also figured in Davos deliberations on appropriate technology.

All these are attractive options for the entire globe. They facilitate free exchange of information. But we must remember at the same time that they also bring in an exponential growth in volumes of information available to be hacked!

For the captains of industry it must have been exciting to be at Davos and exposed to a variety of ideas which could have a momentous impact on the future ways of conducting business.

And for those making a living out of cyber security and are looking for challenges, exciting times are ahead!

(The writer is a former CBI Director who is currently Adviser (Security) to TCS Ltd.)

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