Aug25
2-Tiers of Internet Goodness, Sponge Bob Square Pants and the Latest iDefense Russian Country Study posted by Rick Howard
Filed in: 2-Tierd Internet
We just published our latest Global Threat Research Report on Russia to our customer base. I have to say, it is a very interesting read; 48 pages of deep-dive intelligence about what is going on in that country. But one thing caught my eye in our Russia report that dovetails nicely with another report written by the National Security Cyberspace Institute (General-Retired-Ron Keys, Charles Winstead and Kendra Simmons). This is the idea of a two tier internet.
A "Two-Tier Internet" is the concept that for day-to-day internet surfing activity (like checking out what Sponge Bob episode is on the cartoon network tonight or whether or not Mel Gibson's wife has released another phone rant by her extremely mad ex), the internet is anonymous and should remain anonymous like it is for the most part today. For official transactions (like banking, ecommerce, government functions, etc), reliable authentication between parties is not just a nice to have feature but a prerequisite for doing business. The NSCI paper explains it this way:
"[...]the bottom layer is the anonymous layer, the place where you can surf the web without anybody knowing who you are. The second tier is the maturity layer; the place where you go when you have to function in the real world: finical transactions, government exchanges, business transactions, etc. In the maturity layer, you must identify yourself with absolute precision."
What caught my eye about the NSCI paper is that the thesis is very similar to what the Russian leadership is advocating within their own country; namely that the internet should be split into two categories: humanities (unrestricted) and economics (restricted). Here we have two similar positions; one advocated by the Russian Government and one advocated by a US conservative think tank.
At first glance, I thought that the motivations between the two advocates (Russia and NSCI) were different. Russian leadership wants to uplift business opportunities within the country through the power of the internet but they are concerned that this increased communication capability will threaten their hold on power. The NSCI authors are not afraid of losing power as much as they are concerned about getting some of it back.
This is not to say that a two tier internet is a bad idea. Indeed, I think it is a great idea. It is a wonderful compromise between privacy rights advocates who think everything should be free and private on the internet and global governments who are ultimately responsible for protecting their citizens wherever they travel, whether that be on land, in the sea, in the air or in cyber space. If you want to watch your Sponge Bob episodes without anybody knowing your geometric and yellow proclivities, use the humanities portion of the internet. But, if you want to do some sort of official transaction, you need to step up and identify yourself with precision. This would be the price of doing business on the internet.
This in no way describes how we might go about establishing a two-tier internet. That path is fraught with engineering design geekiness that just might insert more security holes into the system then we have already. But if we could do it, I think it might go a long way in making the internet a safer place.
Am I worried that I am coming down on the side of the Russian Government when it comes to internet monitoring? Ok, I'll admit it. It does worry me a little. But, I do not normally discard ideas just because I am concerned. If it makes it easier for me to watch my Sponge Bob episodes, I think it is worth giving it a try.
