Most of us use computers and the Internet most of the time. The architecture of the Internet was developed in the late 1960's by Larry Roberts. One of the profound principles of the Internet is that all the brains of the Internet reside in your laptop or phone and in the servers at Netflix, Google, the BBC. The role of Comcast, Century Link and the companies that run fiber optic cables across the world are to passively transport packets unchanged between for a fee. The end nodes are smart and the network is a passive carrier.
That is the bedrock principle of Network Neutrality.
That also means that your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop; and the servers, are each smart enough to become infected with malware, or for the owner to install malware with intent.
One of the Internet's big thinkers on malware, hackers and bots is cryptographer Bruce Schneier.
Today he spans philosophical and political questions of privacy and policy. He is a good source to track as we are on the way to connect every thing to the Internet, memed as the "Internet of Things" or the "Internet of Everything". Combined with ubiquitous facial recognition, governing policies for the Internet are something every world citizen should be thinking about.
In a talk, "Internet, Security, and Power." Schneier creates a non-technical framework for citizens to consider how we keep ourselves out of a dystopian totalitarian future - the one we all know is coming and can visualize based on film and fiction.
Bruce Schneier speaks Wednesday at UO Eugene in the EMU Ballroom - live streamed at media.uoregon.edu/channel/2014/05/15/kritikos-lecture-by-bruce-schneier/ and at UO Portland Thursday. Details http://ohc.uoregon.edu/S_2014-Schneier.html Event may be available after the event on UO video site. Suggest arrive early. 7:30 Free
