Do we need a new internet?

Interesting piece in the New York Times looking at the depth of security issues with the internet:-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/weeki ... 1&_r=1

I think the author John Markoff may need to re-adjust his tin-foil hat as I'm not convinced we're at risk of the "electronic Pearl Harbour" that he describes. But it's still an interesting article and he does make some good points.

Quote:

The Internet’s current design virtually guarantees anonymity to its users. (As a New Yorker cartoon noted some years ago, “On the Internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog.”) But that anonymity is now the most vexing challenge for law enforcement. An Internet attacker can route a connection through many countries to hide his location, which may be from an account in an Internet cafe purchased with a stolen credit card. “As soon as you start dealing with the public Internet, the whole notion of trust becomes a quagmire,” said Stefan Savage, an expert on computer security at the University of California, San Diego.