[ISN] Why the FBI¢s 'new Internet' is a dumb idea

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/26/fbi_secure_internet/

By Richard Chirgwin
The Register
26th October 2011

The FBI’s Shawn Henry says the world needs a second Internet for 
critical systems -- apparently never having been told what a “private 
network� is when you don’t prefix it with the word “virtual� – and the 
idea is taking off in other quarters.

Here’s why it’s a dumb idea: it won’t work.

It’s not just that the easiest defenses are the cheapest ones – as 
promulgated by Australia’s Defense Signals Directorate and now endorsed 
by the SANS Institute.

However, that’s a big part of it: if people can’t be trusted to apply 
patches and block obvious holes, how does creating a new, vastly 
expensive, probably-intrusive (since one idea doing the circuit is the 
registration of all machines) network change things? All it does is put 
the same insecurities and vulnerabilities and slack practices on a new 
network, which everybody will hail as “secure� up until the moment it’s 
penetrated.

And penetrated it will be.

[...]


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