DOCSLIB.ORG

Protection and Security Information Superhighway

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Protection and Security Information Superhighway 1992 Protection and Security on the Information Superhighway by Dr. Frederick B. Cohen c , Fred Cohen, 1992 Contents 1 Introduction and Overview 3 1.1 Preview . 6 1.2 The National Information Infrastructure . 10 2 A Growing Dependency 15 2.1 Technology Marches On . 16 2.2 Survival Dependencies . 19 2.3 Personal and Business Dependency . 21 2.4 National Survival Dependencies . 24 2.5 Indirect Dependency . 27 2.6 The Information Superhighway . 28 3 The Disrupters Are Among Us 33 3.1 Computer Accidents . 33 3.2 Intentional Events . 39 3.3 A Classification of Disruptions . 51 3.4 The Disrupters . 53 3.5 Motivation . 66 3.6 The Magnitude and Scope of the Problem . 69 3.7 Adding It All Up . 72 4 Asleep At The Switch 73 i 4.1 A History of Secrecy . 74 4.2 Ignorance Is Not Bliss . 76 4.3 The Birth of the Personal Computer . 77 4.4 A Suppressed Technology . 80 4.5 The Universities Fail Us . 83 4.6 An Industry of Charlatans . 84 4.7 Information Assurance Ignored . 85 4.8 Current Disruption Defenses Depend on People . 92 4.9 The Rest of the World Responds . 95 5 Protecting Your Information Assets 97 5.1 Information Protection . 98 5.2 Infrastructures Are Different Than Other Systems . 100 5.3 A Piecemeal Approach . 102 5.4 An Organizational Perspective . 119 5.5 Some Sample Scenarios . 131 5.6 Strategy and Tactics . 133 5.7 The Cost of Protection . 135 5.8 An Incremental Protection Process . 143 6 Protection Posture Case Studies 147 6.1 How To Do A Protection Posture Assessment . 147 6.2 Case Study 1:A Ma and Pa Business . 154 6.3 Case Study 2: A (Not-so) Small Business . 159 6.4 Case Study 3: A Big Business . 164 6.5 Case Study 4: A Military System . 167 6.6 Case Study 5: The DoD and the Nation as a Whole . 172 7 Summary and Conclusions 177 ii A Details of the NII 179 A.1 Information Channels . 179 A.2 The Evolution of the Information Infrastructure . 179 A.3 The NII Today . 182 A.4 Information Service Providers . 183 A.5 Possible Futures . 184 B Case Studies 187 B.1 Case Study 3: XYZ Corporation . 187 B.2 Case Study 4: The Alma System . 215 B.3 Case Study 5: The DoD and the Nation as a Whole . 237 C Glossary 247 iii Acknowledgements I want to give my deepest and most sincere thanks to two people without whose efforts, I would not have been able to write this book. They are exceptional people who I have found to be members of the rare breed who place personal integrity and honesty above money, fame, and other worldly things. Not only have they spent many hours debating minute details that most of my readers will probably never appreciate, they have also kept me well grounded in reality, prevented me from making statements that stretch the truth, and pressed me to convince them in writing that my views are well supported. In alphabetical order by last name, they are Ron Knecht and Charles Preston. Ron is one of those people who can listen to me communicate technical details of information protection at or around full bandwidth. I would place him in the top ten or twenty people in the world in his field. His demand for precision in some of the work that supported this book, his understanding and guidance in considering many of the national and international issues, and his comprehension of technical matters has been an invaluable aid in this work and in this book. He has also taken time on weekends, evenings, and early mornings to read and review some of my analysis, which is certainly going above and beyond the call of duty. Charles is just plain helpful. Charles doesn't believe anything I tell him without checking it out for himself. The availability of a fact checker who sincerely wants to know the truth about a field is one of the best things an author of a technical book can have. For example, if I used the number $100 million somewhere and didn't cite the correct page number, Charles would not only find that the dollar value was incorrect and should be $300 million, but he would (he did) also find the correct page number and send me a copy of the source material on Sunday night of a holiday weekend via facsimile. Without Charles, this book would probably have only half of the hard facts and citations it now has, and for my money, that's worth more than I can express. I should also take the time to thank Diane Cerra, who is the person I deal with at John Wiley and Sons. Diane says that I am very easy to work with, which probably means that other authors are really hard to work with. She is of course very easy for me to work with because she eliminates every obstacle before I even know it was there. I send her a partially completed book, and she tells me that we should change the title to this or that, or that I could use a chapter on some other topic. I either say OK or tell her why it's a bad idea, and after a few minutes, we are back to talking about how many sales we will need for me to buy a condominium in New York. So far, we have sold enough to almost make one monthly payment. There are so many other people who have provided information and assisted in the development of this book in various ways that I cannot possibly remember them all or list them here. Also, many of them would probably rather I didn't mention them. To all of you, a collective thank you will have to do. 1 2 Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview Have you been to the bank lately? If the computers weren't working, could you get any money from them? How about the supermarket? Would they be able to check you out without their checkout computers? Does your car have computers to control the fuel mixture? How about at the office? Does your company use computers to get you your paycheck? Does the gas station where you get gas use computers in their gas pumps? The United States as a nation and its citizens as a people depend on information and informa- tion systems as a key part of their competitive advantage. This is common knowledge. But the dependency doesn't stop there. Without properly operating information systems, the national bank- ing system, electric power grid, transportation systems, food and water supplies, communications systems, medical systems, emergency services, and most businesses cannot survive. Operation Desert Storm was an object lesson in the critical importance of information in warfare, in that it demonstrated the ability of the United States to obtain and use information effectively while preventing Iraq from obtaining and using comparable information. But it was also a lesson in what happens to a country that only moderately depends on information when that information is taken away. The vast majority of the destruction in Iraq was to systems that provided the communications required for command and control of forces. The effect was the utter destruction of the Iraqi economy, and as a nation, Iraq is now at or below par with most third-world nations. These object lessons were observed and understood by other nations and organizations. The world has seen the effect of removing the information infrastructure from a country that was only marginally dependent on it, and the effect was devastating. But what about the effect on a nation that is highly dependent on its information infrastructure? The United States is rushing headlong into the information age. But the world is a dangerous place. People are regularly attacking the information highways already in place. Here's a good statistic to show you what I mean. Something like 900 million attacks take place on the Internet each year. 3 Financial loss is often cited as the rationale behind enhanced information protection, and a lot of figures fly around. As an example, AT&T claims that its toll fraud losses added up to $2 billion in 1992. Meanwhile, FBI figures claim that computer crime losses range from $164 million to $5 billion annually. [21] That's quite a range! It also seems to indicate that the FBI figures don't include the AT&T figures. And financial loss is not the only form of loss encountered in our society. Businesses have confidential information stolen and patented by competitors, individuals end up in jail and inmates are released because of disruptions in law enforcement computers, IRS computer failures have caused thousands of small companies to be put out of business, corporate telephone switches have regularly had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of telephone calls stolen through them over a weekend, and the list goes on almost without end. The more information that flows through the information highways, the harder it is to protect people from accidents and abuse. The more places the information highways go, the more people are susceptible to harm. A good example is the Internet, one of the largest information networks in the world. The Internet connects more than 2 million computers together today. Compare this to the fall of 1988, when there were only about 60,000 computers on the Internet. The reason to choose the fall of 1988 for comparison is because that is when the Internet Virus was launched.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Issues Related to the Emergence of the Information Superhighway and California Societal Changes
    IISTPS Report 96-4 Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies Created by Congress in 1991 ISSUES RELATED TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY AND CALIFORNIA SOCIETAL CHANGES Mineta Transportation Institute San Jos é State University San Jose, CA 95192-0219 ISSUES RELATED TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHW...Page 1 of 117 IISTPS Report 96-4 ISSUES RELATED TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY AND CALIFORNIA SOCIETAL CHANGES December 1996 Dr. Jan L. Botha, Professor of Civil Engineering, Dr. Roger Salstrom, Associate Professor, Organization & Management Dr. R. Benjamin Knapp, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Shirley Chan, Research Assistant A publication of the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies IISTPS Created by Congress in 1991 Technical Report Documentation Page http://www.transweb.sjsu.edu/publications/Information%20Superhighway.htm 11/6/2003 ISSUES RELATED TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHW...Page 2 of 117 1. Report No FHWA/CA/OR-96/23 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipients Catalog No. 4. Title and Subtitle: 5. Report Date Issues Related to the Emergence of the Information Superhighway and December 1996 California Societial Changes 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author: 8. Performing Organization Report No. Dr. Jan Botha, Dr. Roger L. Salstrom, Dr. R. Benjamin Knapp, Shirley Chan A94RM63 9. Performing Organization Name and Address: 10. Work Unit No. California Department of Transportation New Technology and Research, MS-83 P.O. Box 942873 Sacramento, Ca. 94273-0001 11. Contract or Grant No. 65VRM63 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address: 13. Type of Report and Period Covered: California Department of Transportation Final Report Office of Research- MS4 400 7th Street, SW Sacramento, CA 94273-0001 14.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT the Emphasis of the Symposium Was the Internet, Or Information Superhighway, and the Provision of Information Services to End Users
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 381 176 IR 055 472 AUTHOR Helal, Ahmed H., Ed.; Weiss, Joachim W., Ed. TITLE Information Superhighway: The Role of Librarians, Information Scientists, and Intermediaries. Proceedings of the International Essen Symposium (17th, Essen, Germany, October 24-27, 1994). INSTITUTION Essen Univ. (Germany). Library. REPORT NO ISBN-3-922602-19-3; ISSN-0931-7503 PUB DATE 95 NOTE 488p.; Festschrift in honor of Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF02/PC20 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Academic Libraries: *Access to Information; *Computer Networks: Cooperation; Developing Nations; Electronic Publishing; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; 'Information Networks; Information Technology; 'Librarians; *Library Role; Library Services, Professional Training; Quality Control; Users (information) IDENTIFIERS 'Information Superhighway; *Internet; Virtual Libraries ABSTRACT The emphasis of the symposium was the Internet, or information superhighway, and the provision of information services to end users. Many internationally recognized librarians shared their experiences and expressed their ideas on new developments and possibilities related to the information superhighway. The 34 papers presented at the symposium addressed the following issues:(1) definition, applications, cost, security, privacy, access, delivery, and ease of use;(2) strategies and tactics for accessing information . on the superhighway, as well as concern for unauthorized use; (3) tremendous amounts of irrelevant information,
    [Show full text]
  • The Book of Broken Promises:$400 Billion Broadband Scandal
    THE BOOK OF BROKEN PROMISES: $400 BILLION BROADBAND SCANDAL & FREE THE NET FOR ERIC LEE, AUNT ETHEL, ARNKUSH, AND THE TEAM Author: Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director New Networks Institute February, 2015 Cover Art: Ferrari Wall Paper1, Broken Skateboard by Pr0totyp2 Disclaimer: AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink are the progeny of the original AT&T. The AT&T logo is the property of AT&T Inc. and the use has not been authorized, sponsored by, or endorsed by the trademark owner. The Verizon logo is the property of Verizon Communications, Inc, and the use has not been authorized, sponsored by, or endorsed by the trademark owner. The CenturyLink logo is the property of CenturyLink, and the use has not been authorized, sponsored by, or endorsed by the trademark owner. All rights reserved. This book has been prepared by New Networks Institute. All rights reserved. Reproduction or further distribution of this report without written authorization is prohibited by law. For additional copies or information please contact [email protected]. © 1997, 2004, 2015 New Networks Institute The Book of Broken Promises 1 What others have said about Bruce Kushnick’s research and previous books: 3 David Cay Johnston, Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Author of The Fine Print, 2012 “Kushnick’s estimate comes from his meticulous analysis of disclosure document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory agencies… Kushnick’s estimate might significantly understate how much extra money people paid for an electronic highway they did not get. It seems very likely that Kushnick’s numbers are uncomfortably close to the truth.” Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Candidates
    The Candidates Family Background Bush Gore Career Highlights Bush Gore Personality and Character Bush Gore Political Communication Lab., Stanford University Family Background USA Today June 15, 2000; Page 1A Not in Their Fathers' Images Bush, Gore Apply Lessons Learned From Losses By SUSAN PAGE WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush and Al Gore share a reverence for their famous fathers, one a former president who led the Gulf War, the other a three-term Southern senator who fought for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. The presidential candidates share something else: a determination to avoid missteps that brought both fathers repudiation at the polls in their final elections. The younger Bush's insistence on relying on a trio of longtime and intensely loyal aides -- despite grumbling by GOP insiders that the group is too insular -- reflects his outrage at what he saw as disloyalty during President Bush's re-election campaign in 1992. He complained that high- powered staffers were putting their own agendas first, friends and associates say. Some of those close to the younger Gore trace his willingness to go on the attack to lessons he learned from the above-the-fray stance that his father took in 1970. Then-senator Albert Gore Sr., D-Tenn., refused to dignify what he saw as scurrilous attacks on his character with a response. The approach of Father's Day on Sunday underscores the historic nature of this campaign, as two sons of accomplished politicians face one Political Communication Lab., Stanford University another. Their contest reveals not only the candidates' personalities and priorities but also the influences of watching their famous fathers, both in victory and in defeat.
    [Show full text]
  • The Information Highway
    THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY David L. Bender, Publisher Bruno Leone, Executive Editor Scott Barbour, Managing Editor Brenda Stalcup, Senior Editor Charles P. Cozic, Book Editor Other Books in the Current Controversies Series: The Abortion Controversy The AIDS Crisis Alcoholism Drug Trafficking Energy Alternatives Ethics Europe Family Violence Free Speech Gambling Gun Control Hate Crimes Hunger Illegal Immigration Interventionism Iraq Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Police Brutality Pollution Reproductive Technologies Sexual Harassment Violence Against Women Violence in the Media Women in the Military Youth Violence No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical, or otherwise, including, but not limited to, photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Cover Photo: © Charly Franklin/FPG International Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The information highway / Charles P. Cozic, book editor. p. cm. — (Current controversies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56510-374-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-56510-375-0 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) 1. Information superhighway—United States. 2. Telecommunication policy—United States. 3. Telecommunication—United States. I. Cozic, Charles P., 1957– . II. Series. HE7572.U6I537 1996 384.3—dc20 95-35486 CIPP © 1996 by Greenhaven Press, Inc., PO Box 289009, San Diego, CA 92198-9009 Printed in the U.S.A. Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyrighted material. Contents Foreword 10 Introduction 12 Chapter 1: What Is the Information Highway? The Information Highway: An Overview by Philip Elmer-DeWitt 16 Cyberspace is the computer-generated landscape where computer communications are conveyed via wires, cables, and microwaves— the foundations of the information highway.
    [Show full text]
  • 200 Billion Broadband Scandal
    Broadband Scandal 2 $200 Billion Broadband Scandal By Bruce Kushnick Chairman, Teletruth Executive Director, New Networks Institute This book has been prepared by New Networks Institute. All rights reserved. Reproduction or further distribution of this report without written authorization is prohibited by law. For additional copies or information please contact Teletruth in writing at 568 Broadway, Suite 404, New York, NY 10012, or by phone at 718-238- 7191, or by e-mail at [email protected]. © 2006 Teletruth Broadband Scandal 3 Dear Juror, Thanks for purchasing this book. A bit of a roadmap might be useful. This micro-history of the Bells' fiber optic plans is designed to let the reader decide if the case we present is correct. The Bells currently are SBC (renamed AT&T), Verizon, BellSouth and Qwest. It is also designed to serve multiple purposes, such as providing case studies for various states including New Jersey, Massachusetts and California, as well as data to back Teletruth’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint against SBC and Verizon. The Roadmap NOTE: The book officially starts at Part One, Chapter I. However, we've added other items to the front and the back of the book for the reader. • The Players: Who Are the Bell Companies? — This section is designed to give a thumbnail sketch of the Bell phone companies, the territories they served, as well as their old and new relationships with AT&T and MCI. • How I Came to Write this Book — This is the Preface. • Introduction and Summary — This was designed as the 'Cliff Notes' version of the entire story — Volume I and II.
    [Show full text]
  • Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age
    Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age Bruce A. Shuman LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age This Page Intentionally Left Blank Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age Bruce A. Shuman 2001 LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. Englewood, Colorado Come al solito, per mia moglie ed i bambini . Copyright © 2001 Libraries Unlimited, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. P.O. Box 6633 Englewood, CO 80155-6633 1-800-237-6124 www.lu.com ISBN 1-56308-805-3 Contents Contents Preface . ix 1—Ecce Internet! Capabilities . 1 Overview . 1 What Is the Internet? . 1 Where, Exactly, Is the Internet?. 3 What Is the World Wide Web? . 4 How Big Is the Internet? . 6 How Important Is the Internet? . 10 History: The Internet’s Birth and Development . 17 Demographics: Who’s on the Web? . 22 Capabilities: What You Can Do, Find, Visit on the Web . 26 E-Mail and the Internet . 32 Notes . 35 2—Caveat Internet! Potholes, Hazard Lights, and Glare Ice on the Information Superhighway . 37 Overview. 37 The Times, They Are a-Changin’ . 37 Modern-Day Luddites . 40 Not Dodge City; Who’s in Charge, Here?. 42 Hazardous Driving Conditions on the Infobahn . 46 Drowning in Data: Information Overload . 51 Truth and Accuracy: Information and Misinformation .
    [Show full text]
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Telecom Reform: Speech Given at Depaul Law Review Fifth Annual Symposium
    DePaul Law Review Volume 45 Issue 4 Summer 1996: Symposium - Telecommunications Regulation in an Era of Article 4 Convergence The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Telecom Reform: Speech Given at DePaul Law Review Fifth Annual Symposium Roy M. Neel Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Roy M. Neel, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Telecom Reform: Speech Given at DePaul Law Review Fifth Annual Symposium, 45 DePaul L. Rev. 995 (1996) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol45/iss4/4 This Front Matter is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY OF TELECOM REFORM Roy M. Neel* Every decade or so Congress and the White House, Republicans and Democrats, sit down in Washington, roll up their sleeves, shut out the adversarial rhetoric and the partisan squabbling, and get it right. The amazingly smooth passage of the new telecommunications law on February 8, 1996 was one of those rare occasions.' And, when you peel back all the news hype, it was a genuinely remarkable event in the history of the U.S. economy. As I sat in the audience watching the President sign the bill, I mar- veled that one of the longest-running Washington legislative side- 2 shows, beginning with the so-called "Bell Bill" in 1976, was now over.
    [Show full text]
  • Pres. Bill Clinton Speech)(Transcript) Total Number of Pages for This Article: 5 FULL TEXT
    Monday, September 23, 1996 ISSN: 0511-4187; Volume v32; Issue n38 Remarks in Portland, Oregon. (Pres. Bill Clinton speech)(Transcript) Total number of pages for this article: 5 FULL TEXT September 20, 1996 Thank you. Good morning, Portland. Mayor Katz, Congresswoman Furse, Tom Bruggere, Darlene Hooley, Mike Dugan. Thank you all for being here with us. Madame Mayor and Congresswoman Furse, thank you for making us feel so welcome in Portland again. Maybe I come back here so often because I like it. I must say, I have to hand it to the Vice President. I didn't think anyone could keep a secret in Washington. Al Gore cut a book deal with a book full of secrets. It never leaked. Now he's telling it all, and he wrote the book under his own name. Al Gore is doing for the Federal Government what he did for the macarena. He is removing all the unnecessary steps. [Laughter] Now, he's got some funny names here. He calls for performance-based organizations - that's sort of a boring title. I think we ought to scrap that title and substitute something more exciting, like "Trailblazers." Would you like that? [Applause] I want to thank Tipper Gore and the First Lady, too, for some things they've already talked about. You know, we've worked very hard to improve the health care of the American people. That's a big part of moving into the 21st century, to immunize more children, to increase medical research, to speed the movement of drugs to market.
    [Show full text]
  • The Information Superhighway: Status and Issues
    94-954 SPR The Information Superhighway : Status and Issues Marcia S. Smith Specialist in Science and Technology Policy Science Policy Research Division El Ammik December 2, 1994 -t 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111 THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY : STATUS AND ISSUES SUMMARY As the media devote increasing attention to the "information super- highway," many question whether this latest high-tech creation is fact, fantasy, or a distant future . The answer is one of perspective and expectations. For those who think of the Information Superhighway ("I-way") in terms of computers around the country and the world connected to each other, forming large networks that allow instant access to vast amounts of information and people, a prototype system already exists, the Internet . To those with a more expansive vision, Internet is at best a two-lane road, and the Superhighway still in its earliest stages of construction . Vice President Gore's vision, called the National Information Infrastructure (NII), would provide "a seamless web of communications networks, computers, databases, and consumer electronics that will put vast amounts of information at users' fingertips ." The Vice President's frequent references to enabling every school in America to access the collections of the Library of Congress has become symbolic of the ultimate capability of the Superhighway, but such access will require billions of dollars of investment in technology, hardware, software, training, and "digitizing" the vast amounts of text, audio, and video material currently in other forms . Clearly that vision is far from realization, even though the private sector is already making substantial investments . The Vice President also wants the NII expanded to the world, calling it the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) .
    [Show full text]
  • Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age
    Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age Bruce A. Shuman LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age This Page Intentionally Left Blank Issues for Libraries and Information Science in the Internet Age Bruce A. Shuman 2001 LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. Englewood, Colorado Come al solito, per mia moglie ed i bambini . Copyright © 2001 Libraries Unlimited, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. P.O. Box 6633 Englewood, CO 80155-6633 1-800-237-6124 www.lu.com ISBN 1-56308-805-3 Contents Contents Preface . ix 1—Ecce Internet! Capabilities . 1 Overview . 1 What Is the Internet? . 1 Where, Exactly, Is the Internet?. 3 What Is the World Wide Web? . 4 How Big Is the Internet? . 6 How Important Is the Internet? . 10 History: The Internet’s Birth and Development . 17 Demographics: Who’s on the Web? . 22 Capabilities: What You Can Do, Find, Visit on the Web . 26 E-Mail and the Internet . 32 Notes . 35 2—Caveat Internet! Potholes, Hazard Lights, and Glare Ice on the Information Superhighway . 37 Overview. 37 The Times, They Are a-Changin’ . 37 Modern-Day Luddites . 40 Not Dodge City; Who’s in Charge, Here?. 42 Hazardous Driving Conditions on the Infobahn . 46 Drowning in Data: Information Overload . 51 Truth and Accuracy: Information and Misinformation .
    [Show full text]
  • Information Superhighways
    Information superhighways Research Paper 94/133 22 December 1994 This paper explains what information superhighways are and describes recent policy developments in the UK, Europe and the United States. William Lea Science and Environment Section House of Commons Library Library Research Papers are compiled for the benefit of Members of Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with Members dhi ffb di b fh l bli CONTENTS Page I. Summary 1 II. Introduction 3 A. What is the information superhighway? 3 B. The infrastructure and different technologies 4 1. Information4 2. Copper cables and optical fibres 4 3. Telephone companies 6 4. Cable television companies 7 5. Interactivity 9 C. The Internet 10 1. What is the Internet? 10 2. A brief history of the Internet 12 III. International developments 14 A. The United States 14 1. National Information Infrastructure 14 2. Legislative reform 15 3. Funding issues 16 C. Europe 16 1. Delors white paper 16 2. Bangemann Report 18 3. Action plan on the information society 20 IV. UK developments 22 A. Existing infrastructure 22 1. Telecommunications infrastructure 22 2. SuperJANET 23 B. Public sector superhighway applications 24 C. Trade and Industry Committee report on Optical Fibre Networks 26 D. Government Command paper on superhighways 30 1. Future infrastructure 31 2. Regulatory policy 32 3. Funding of public sector applications 34 V. The future 35 VI. Bibliography 36 Research Paper 94/133 I. Summary The phrase "information superhighway" was first coined by Vice President Al Gore to describe the telecommunications networks of the future.
    [Show full text]