Web Security

The security of the web is an issue that we should be looking at more so today than ever before. According to the article by the Associated Press "What's government's role in making the Web secure?" the government should be prepared for a cyberattack that could harm the infrastructure of  our country in terms of revealing government secrets, military weapons specifics, sensitive data and personal information.

The article was published on 9/27/09 and Lolita C. Baldor states that On a daily basis, there are hackers and cybercriminals trying to access secure network information from both the private and government sector, that information must be kept secure, and there is an ongoing debate on whether the government should have the power to shut down all Internet traffic in an event of a crisis. An example of this can be found in the movie Life Free or Die Hard from Twentieth Century Fox where terrorism in the form of a cybercrisis threatens the integrity of the nation's finances. 

Some bloggers believe that the government is trying to take control of the Internet and some business leaders protested on the bill's introduced to congress that address the issues of giving federal authorities the power to protect the country in case of a cyber attack. In general, I think that the government should not have the ability to "pull the plug" on the Internet traffic, but instead should only worry about protecting the  "classified data" and the personal information of it's people. Like Tom Reilly  states, "Private companies are willing and able to protect their systems without government mandates," Also private citizens should take the necessary precautions to protect they're personal computers from hacker attacks. There is free software available to download to protect your computer for people that can't afford paying for expensive antivirus software like Norton or Mcafee. I really recommend downloading Avast if you don't already have an antivirus or you cant afford to pay monthly subscriptions. Over all the article is clear in giving us different points of view about the web security issue. We are left with the notion  that it is an issue that involves every person. Either we think that the government wants to take control or that they are really protecting the web security, it is good that they are doing something about it right now instead of waiting for a disaster.