Cyber Law

Most people assume that as Internet is not only here to stay but that there is more to come. We seemingly have created a Cyber interconnected globe that seeps into all aspects of our lives from business to personal to travel and education. Surely this barely 10 year old available technology as far are the general public is concerned, is the future not the past. Well recent discussion suggest, this may not be the case and the Internet could actually die!

These are 6 ways that many techno fortune tellers foresee the demise of this global behemoth,

1. Crack the Domain Name Service (DNS). DNS basically is the fundamental way we access a site. (i.e. when you type Google.com that it actually goes to the Google website). Essentially some people have been successful in spoofing this as you may have seen with some of the fake bank scam sites but is someone cracked this system they would essentially control the Net.

2. Zombie Attack! Robot computers and even highly organized groups of individuals have been successful in the past of simultaneously attacking a single site or business and essentially blackmailing them in exchange for the attack to stop. This also has been successful in manipulation search engine rankings as well. Such an attack in the future funded by an malicious and well resourced source could cause irreparable damage.

3. Physical Infrastructure Issues. A recent accident to a couple of cables in the Mediterranean effected hundreds of millions of people's access. Imagine if the attack was intentional. If the pacific cables between Australia and the US were hit, the entire country may well be cut off from the entire world. Furthermore viruses are being created every day and should people either from the outside or more scarily on the inside attack the physical router devices with hard connect the Internet, global communication would cease very quickly.

4. Island Communities. The Internet was supposed to bring us all together as a world and in many way it has but as it has groups have formed and have grown based on people's interests and world view. Now these groups are so developed and networks so vast that people who go online stick to areas and people that fit in with their perspectives that we have just reorganized into different type of divisive groups and hate is festering once again.

5. Net Neutrality. This is almost the phrase of 2008 as Facebook was for 2007 and You Tube for 2006. Basically this refers to the universal access to the internet free of a class or money based level of access. However already mobile phone carriers charge extra for Facebook or You Tube access, so much like Pay TV charges for premium channels maybe your Internet bill in the future may have a monthly Google Fee. Furthermore in response to endless lawsuits of the record and motion picture industry, ISPs are thinking of limiting access or speed to certain sites for fear they may contain pirated material. Once a person begins treating different information differently, then you invariably end up with a limitation of free speech on which the premise of the Internet lies.

6. Great Wall. Countries already subvert Internet access for their citizens. China is the obvious example of this even forcing search engines like Google to censor their results in China when it applies to sensitive area like 'human rights'. However countries like Australia are also exploring their own "walls" under the premise of censoring indecent materials. The problem is that these standards are arbitrary and each person has different moral standards and once each individual and nation implements these censor solutions, the Internet becomes nothing more than a propaganda tool for any particular government.