Security Bytes –March 2015– Net Neutrality?
This month I wish to offer a view on something that I feel is crucial to the continuation of a free and secure Internet for the future. In the early days of the Internet the United States was the pioneer of many of the technologies that we use on the Internet every day. No one could have ever envisioned that the world would be so “connected” in such a short period of time nor could one foresee the influence being “networked” has on every day life.
We have seen the Internet used for good and bad purposes and until now the Internet as we know it (in the United States) has always been virtually unregulated by any one authority with regard to content carried and delivered to end users. All of the companies, Internet service providers and others that connect to the Internet have essentially followed the guidelines of the IETF ( Internet Engineering Task Force ) to ensure that the technology they use can effectively communicate, however no single governing body has implemented any rules for the content that can be delivered on the Internet.
In many other countries, governments regulate everything that is passed through their networks from the Internet and all content may be subject to inspection by governing bodies. In some countries, privacy is NOT expected by anyone. Now here in the United States there is a Net Neutrality bill that was just passed, the intention is to ensure that a free and open Internet is maintained and that no corporate entity can abuse exorbitant pricing, favoritism and that everyone should expect that no information will be throttled or any one providers data be prioritized by price. While all these ideas sound nice in theory, it also brings up the topic of who will be in charge to ensure that these standards are kept and how with that governing body be able to see all the traffic that is going across all these separate networks that are interconnected?
To me this raises some privacy concerns that a new (or existing) entity of our Govt. will have unfettered access to all data available in the name of “net Neutrality” and that entity can make decisions based on the content! I personally do not feel comfortable with the knowledge that ALL of my data may be inspected to preserve neutrality. There are also those that may argue that all of our data is already inspected by the Govt. as stated by Edward Snowden in the information he has disclosed in the past year. I would say that it is important that individuals have the right to choose what data should be kept private and NOT inspected by anyone else!
My main purpose is to urge everyone to educate themselves fully on the implications of ANY laws that are proposed which can affect our privacy on the Internet. I just as many of you have NOTHING to hide, however the foundations of our country are built upon the freedom of speech and thinking. Having big brother looking at everything I do daily does not make me feel very secure in the fact that my data is not being shared with others in the Internet.
-Paul Mavrovic, CISSP