[1567] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Internet paranoia
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Wolff)
Sun Nov 10 07:51:17 1991
To: Ken Laws <LAWS@ai.sri.com>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 91 07:40:55 EST
From: Stephen Wolff <steve@ncri.cise.nsf.gov>
> Let's take the MILNET severing seriously, for the moment. Would it
> really hurt anyone?
Groups with a Mission and the energy, determination, and taxpayer money to
carry it out often have deep reservations about the Internet/INREN and its
free and open ways; they worry, for example, about congestion and lack of
security and other (mis)features that may affect their ability to move the
Mission successfully.
Frequently, the initial response to these worries is to demand the creation
of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for the Mission - i.e., a piece of the
Internet/INREN that is logically separated so that it is unaffected by
congestion, hackers, or other cruft on the larger 'net. "This is, after
all," goes one of the arguments, "just an extension of common commercial
practice: forget the research weenies; you wouldn't expect the really
important parts of GM and Ford to share a common open data network, would
you?"
While offering an instant, attractive, and locally optimum fix, an
Internet/INREN Balkanized by a proliferation of VPNs - connected as Ken
suggests only by Sneakernet or strong and well-policed gateways so as to
allow only approved traffic to pass - poses I think a real threat to the
intellectual health not only of the individual Mission communities but to
the larger Internet/INREN family of which we are all members, and whose
present health and vigor are due in large part to the very openness which
now fuels folks' worries.
Whether space scientists, nuclear physicists, or MILNET clients, I think the
creation of VPNs should be resisted as a matter of principle, adopted only
when there is no other solution, and ditched as soon as technology provides
other ways to solve legitimate concerns.
-s
PS: And in the present instance, there are after all some resources on
MILNET many folks would hate to be disconnected from. Simtel-20, INFO-UNIX,
and UNIX-WIZARDS, for example. It's a two-way street; don't forget TCP-IP
DIGEST started up behind net 26, too. -s
