Security is a big issue these days, however it has not always been this way. When the internet was being developed, there was hardly a idea to the possible security risks and possible issues to our privacy. The difficulty can be demonstrated best by the custom which lies at the very heart of our communication across the web – HTTP.
HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transport protocol and is the 'language of the web' each web request you send from your browser will use this protocol. I'm sure you've noticed the HTTP at the start of every web address, so what is wrong with it?
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with HTTP, it is a fast and efficient custom that has enabled the web to develop as swiftly as it can. The primary problem though is it's highly insecure and transfers everything in clear, understandable text.
If you log the data of an average net session, just about the entire thing is in clear text, all listed with your IP number. So all your personal information is stored and logged on tons of places across the internet – with perhaps the greatest and most comprehensive list stored in your ISP.
This is the reason why everybody from presidencies to hackers and ID thieves target this information, all our scanning in clear text is pretty valuable info for different reasons. It's why you've no chance at surfing anonymously without encrypting your connection.
Most of the major regimes use the information stored at your ISP, in Europe there is a Directive which forces all ISPs to keep these logs to guarantee they're available when needed, in the USA the logs are typically accessed without as much as a search warrant. It represents both a major risk and intrusion to our private information and privacy.
The more we use the web, the more critical it is, that our data is secure – sending out all our personal details in a plain text packet doesn't sound that smart. There is lots of information and misinformation on the internet which can seriously compromise what little privacy we have.
If you would like to discover more about the issues, and technologies involved then please visit my blog which covers all this and more. You can even learn the way to use the latest security technology to observe BBC Iplayer Outside UK through the power of truly anonymous proxies.
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