IT WASN’T a telegram that informed me about new book, but an email. A century-and-a-half of engineering ingenuity has brought us from Morse telegraphy to the content-stuffed global network available via a broadband socket near you. But is this express train of ingenuity about to fly off the tracks?
Zittrain thinks so. He’s a cyberlaw scholar at the University of Oxford and co-founder of Harvard Law School’s , who argues that increasingly ineffective internet security will drive us away from using PCs to access it – with chilling ramifications for online innovation. Burgeoning viruses, spyware and privacy invasions by search engines, he says, will eventually drive us to use more secure internet “appliances” like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Xbox, rather than programmable PCs.
This matters, says Zittrain, because these kinds of appliances are under the total control of their manufacturers. Unlike with PCs, users cannot reprogram them or make novel add-ons for them. In other words, they are an evolutionary dead end. Without the ability to undergo techno-adaptation, there will be little or no progress, Zittrain warns. These appliances allow you to access the internet, but that’s all you can do. You can’t manipulate data on a web page or inject it into an innovative program you’ve written. The success of the is testimony to the fact that tinkering takes you places – ad hoc tinkering by legions of programmers produces code that is far better than any individual could produce.
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The vital openness of the internet also renders it vulnerable to attack. Zittrain quotes antivirus industry leaders admitting that they have not only failed at their task but have given up trying to quantify the threat. With two reports of possible new viruses coming in every minute, they just can’t keep up. is getting smarter, too, as I learned recently when a virus masquerading as a Symantec antivirus program destroyed my PC’s hard drive. I had no urge, however, to go out and buy an iPhone – I just rebuilt my computer.
While not everyone is comfortable fixing a hobbled PC, I still don’t buy Zittrain’s notion that we will all rush headlong to buy closed, corporate-controlled appliances. The web is the most compelling application of the internet, and accessing it on anything other than a PC is a complete pain.
One suggestion that Zittrain offers for countering the security threat is to employ the model, by which users collectively protect the encyclopedia from vandalism. Analogously, people could share concerns about rogue programs and websites, flagging them for inoculation by those with the know-how – a kind of neighbourhood watch for malware.
But I can’t help feeling that the sheer sophistication of today’s malware has moved it way beyond the scope of an idealistic wiki-watch. In truth, it’s up to the internet’s engineers to come up with the really smart ideas that are going to counter the security threat we all face.
Computer Viruses – Learn more about the threats to your PC in our comprehensive .
The Future of the Internet – And how to stop it
Penguin
