Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sun, 12 May 91 05:48:54 GMT From: Andy Rabagliati Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Security and Online Services Message-ID: Organization: SGS-Thomson/Inmos Division Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 358, Message 3 of 10 Lines: 33 What we are seeing with Prodigy, Lotus Marketplace, Internet, UUnet, and the like is a nascent industry. When people start selling information - even selling the organization of available information, like phone numbers, we should think of encryption early on. I am sure Prodigy does not knowingly pry for information, but we, the net, know what it could do. Encryption is relatively cheap. It deals with many of the potential problems -- wire-tapping, etc. Why, I could set up a computer service, with a fast, distributed database system, where the data that passed publicly, the requests, the password algorithm, billing info, was encrypted. Maybe the information is commercially sensitive private company data; even I cant read it off the disk because it is locally encrypted before writing to any permanent storage. Computer power makes these cheap options. The issue then becomes clearer -- I am selling an organizer, someone else is selling/using the information. Many people confuse the capabilities of computers with the information itself. They are both issues that need addressing. Cheers, Andy