So, Parsifal Q. Weedhopper... we have learned important lessons today.

"If citizens and companies have to fear that their communications and transactions are monitored... and electronic commerce will just not happen". And is the current population fearing the right things when it comes to internet security? and, dat if peopleeze have a fear of sumpin'...like say a guy that "grabs their cc# number outta the air" when they really should be afraid of their msn explorer that "phones home" at night?

well... let me survey the terrain of which i'm aware in my alleged mind...

this seems to be a very complex mixed bag. we got the clipper chip hardwired into all post-11/94 com devices... then we got all kindsa remote "worms" out there. this is one of the kindsa scenarios that prompted hackers to not only make their advent in groups, but now organized groups. and now the mainstream web site community uses cookies to get into our e-pants.

clinton & gore are working on hotwiring all govt think tanks & universities together on hyper speed lines. thus, clipper, cookies, java and active-x abound in great quantities.

the UN has developed its own (read non-US compliant) e-security standards, a la SEAL

The EC flips the bird at intrusive US security standards (hey... they don't want the US to run the e-show the way they've run every other show for the past 80 years.)

and we ain't even talkied about NON web security stuff yet.... which is covered by new NSA programs and the clipper program too (administered, by the way, by AT&T as sole distributor of the clipper chip). then we have microsquish/gates, vis a vis teledesic, who's puttin up the 500+ geo-synch sat com system with launch dates starting in '98...

one of the things that's emerging here, as the US govt found out with the msc, is that biz is gonna do what they damned well feel like doing, and uncle will have to fight and support biz at the same time... so instead of telling amer biz they couldn't go to malaysia, they said, why don't we devaluate all s.e. asian currencies... that'll show all the little bastards.. and it'll remind amer biz who's got the biggest wanker.

a new era in biz-gov polarization... and their uneasy incestuous partnership.

further, affiant knoweth naught.

some thoughts about practical practical apps:

use a cookie trap/stopper, and... use pgp, except...

well, except when doing global biz then... mebbe switch to SEAL.... er, i mean except in europe, then switch to... hey they don;t have one yet... woops... i guess we can't really do secure global biz, unless its guided by onboard, domain-location driven e-protocols which are in turn compliant with conflicting gov protocols and hardware restrictions...

dang... thought i had it ther fer a sec.

oops... almost fergot...

... then there's the I-War program, and the national public defense program, which revolve in part around e-terrorism, economic and industrial/corporate e-espionage... all of which *force* the public and private sectors (domestically) to work with law enforcement and intel agencies to make sure nobody reel smart comes up with a good e-idea without big brother getting first crack at it, and controlling it...

< * pant, pant, pant * >

ok... i think that's it... until tomorrow, when MicroSquish cuts a deal with the Department of Justice to evade prosecution under anti-trust laws...

dang... I hate when that happens.

hehehe... you r good... you came in with your assignment ahead of my anticipation... good... no... great job

its the wild west out here... and uncle sam wants to b da marshal, pardner... and of course the corp. giants do tooo... like mc and visa...and... so on, ad nauseam.