Former CIA chief, George J. Tenet, has said that the "Wild West" that is the Internet "must give way to governance and control" because it "represents a potential Achilles' heel for our financial stability and physical security if the networks we are creating are not protected," and terrorists are "undoubtedly mapping vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our telecommunications networks." He is concerned that key industries and physical infrastructure are open to attack through their networks. This article parphrases him as saying that access to the World Wide Web should be restricted to those who prove they can be trusted and take security seriously. I've no idea whether he did say that, as the reporter admits that the press were excluded from Mr Tenet's talk, at his request. So presumably the direct quotes in the article came from a source who was allowed to attend.
Mr Tenet is right in saying that networks would be more secure if only a limited number of trusted people were allowed to use them. They'd also be more secure if no one could use them; just like aeroplanes would be safer if we grounded them for good, as was done in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 tragedies; and roads would be safer if we banned cars and other motorised vehicles.
Security is a trade off and the question is how much (lifestyle, money, time, convenience, services, freedom, access to gadgets etc) are we prepared to trade off to secure our society against the dangerous , agressive, destructive behaviour of the kind of people Mr Tenet was paid for so long to tackle; and how effective are those trade offs in actually securing us against that behaviour?
I guess it is also potentially instructive that one of the trusted attendees at the talk still leaked comments to the press, so even locked down, trusted person only access networks will have their vunerabilities...
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