Security News > 1999 > September > Borders on the Internet are Internet security!
From: rdom China Youth Daily, 9/13/99 http://www.sinopolis.com/ Some believe that national borders do not exist on the Internet. Absolutely not! Borders on the Internet are Internet security! Some believe that the threats on the Web are only from "viruses" and "hackers." Absolutely not! There are also threats from information hegemony and cultural infiltration! Today when we are entering a Web age, Web security has become an important indicator of a new and necessary concept of security for the state. The key to Web security is in grasping "web domination." Without "web domination" there is no Web and information security. In today¡¯s society, politics, economy, military, and social activities are gradually depending on networking. As a major infrastructure component of the state, networking will certainly become a main target of information warfare of the 21st century. With the development of computer networks, network society formed gradually. Online territory became another dimension besides land, ocean, sky, and space, and became part of the territory under sovereign jurisdiction. However, different from the territory of the conventional sense and though online territory belongs to the field of national sovereignty and security, it does not have clearly definable borders, and any web user can enter this dimension and conduct activities. This creates conflicts occurring in this "soft border" more secretive and dangerous. Conflicts on the web have neither smoke nor bloodshed; it is very likely that the opponent has already launched an attack or already won a decisive victory while you are still unaware. The attacks by computer "viruses" and "hackers," the infiltration of web culture, and the unfair invasion of the people who horde web information will politically deceive the people, cause economic losses, leak out classified military intelligence (and hence lose the power to command), and cause ideological chaos and social disturbances. In this respect, attacks and infiltration in the online territory can be deadly for national politics, economy, military, and society. Because of this, we can say that "web domination = territorial domination," and we must firmly establish the awareness for the security of national defense online. We must develop an independent national Internet industry so that our online territory and sovereignty is not violated. But how is the current situation? [snip..] ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM