The Information Superhighway

The Internet, once concealed inside government agencies and universities, has become the largest single form of communication worldwide. With a number of online individuals exceeding thirty millions and the number of networks that act as gateways for users exceeding fifty thousands, the Internet's boundaries can only be imagined. Often described by the media as “the information superhighway”, the internet offers to customary users a wide variety of services, but also some drawbacks. Any form of communication via the internet is cheaper and rather faster than any service from other facilities. The electronic mail (email), for instance, allows any user on the internet to send nearly instantaneous electronic message to anyone else. The “internet phone”, which is slowly but surely replacing the regular phone, enables anyone to make free long distance calls, through the computer. With the appearance of “streaming” technologies, broadcasting companies and radio stations are transmitting regularly over the internet, which makes them accessible anywhere on the globe. The only costs involved in using these internet services, and many others not mentioned, are the costs of the user's computer, the modem , and the telephone lines used to dial in, all of which can be relatively cheap. One of the recent innovations the internet made available is online commerce, which includes online shopping, online banking, online trading and many more. This opens up a new international world of trading. Consumers, overcoming any kind of disability, can effectively dive into an immense range and selection of merchandise, effortlessly compare prices and quickly shop from remote locations. Perhaps, waiting to carry out regular transactions in financial centres is very frustrating. This is not true anymore with the expansion of the internet to include online banking. People can, anytime and anywhere from the globe, access their bank accounts, pay their bills, transfer their money and even trade their stocks. The internet is, beyond doubt, the most efficient and economic tool of the next generation. But, the dark side of the internet reveals some serious drawbacks. First, it was not designed with tight security in mind. This was demonstrated, at least once a month, by so-called “crackers”: growing minorities of people with nothing better to do than spoil everyone else’s enjoyment. Crackers dedicate their work to purposely infect programs and distant computers that access the internet. In July 1997, successfully capturing and distributing credit card numbers of NBA and ESPN users, crackers achieved the first widely known attack on internet credit card data. On the same year, another cracker known as “Snak” was taken into custody by FBI agents after he had stolen over one hundred thousands credit card numbers from an internet service provider (ISP) located in northern California. Nevertheless, the “internet tasking force” (ITF), a group of knowledgeable engineers whose sole task is to reinforce the integrity of the internet, is taking significant measures to prevent such unlawful actions. Secondly, the internet’s structures do not only transport data, but it also transports compact and yet very harmful intruders: computer viruses. These artificial clever beasts that destroy data, have existed since the very first birth of personnel computers. With the growth of the internet, virus authors have been faced up to nothing but a widespread gate to the information superhighway, efficiently supplied with new viruses. “Veronica”, last century’s award winning virus, transformed to inoperative rather hundred thousands of computers and thousands of networks around the globe for quite few days; financial institutes deciphered the heartbreaking event to more than a few million dollars of 52 vanished money. This is wonderlessly why internet communities are very much concerned about security. Occasionally, information takes lengthy periods to load on the computer’s screen; just enough to frustrate impatient users. This is often due to delays that occur at endpoints, and on the internet's paths, which can be thought of several four lane roadways with neither traffic officers nor civilized drivers. The rate at which data is transmitted and the number of systems, are being improved, but not at the same level as the number of new users. This is one of the main reasons behind the delays. The “information superhighway”, as any other invention, has its strengths residing in its popular aspects – the World Wide Web, email, online commerce, and many others. The internet has also its weaknesses, some of which can be very damaging. I believe, however, that these drawbacks will be overcome in time as technology advances and methods of securely transmitting, receiving, and retrieving information improve.