Abstract
In the early days of computing, placing computers under lock and key protection was enough to secure them. Computing began with the elaborate mechanical computer plans of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace in the 19th Century and was carried on through the reinvention of computing prior and during World War II. In the second half of the 20th Century, computers became personal devices that could be used by anyone. Networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web transformed computers into globally accessible communications tools for everyone on the planet. This access explosion neutralized lock and key protections and fostered ubiquitous cybercrime. The industry is scrambling to catch up.
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Notes
- 1.
See the Computer History Museum, “The Babbage Engine,” www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/ . Accessed January, 2016. The output mechanisms were not completed until 2002.
- 2.
The Analytic Engine is “Turing complete.” This is not the place to discuss Turing computers, but “Turing complete” is a mathematical definition of a general computer.
- 3.
Encyclopedia.com, “Early Computers,” www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401200044.html . Accessed January 2016.
- 4.
Shayne Nelson, “The 60s - IBM & the Seven Dwarves,” June 1, 2004, http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/tricks-of-the-trade/the-60s-ibm-the-seven-dwarves-955 . Accessed January 2016.
- 5.
The technology is virtualization of which I will talk about later.
- 6.
BusinessWeek, “The Office of the Future”, June 1975, www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/1975-06-30/the-office-of-the-futurebusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice . Accessed February, 2016. This article is a pre-PC discussion of the paperless office. It documents the mixture of views prevalent at the time. This article seems to assume that a paperless office would consist of terminals connected to a central mainframe. In the future, a LAN of connected PCs would be thought of as a better architecture.
- 7.
Danny Weiss, “Eudora’s Name and Historical Background”, www.eudorafaqs.com/eudora-historical-background.shtml . Accessed February 2016, offers some interesting insight into the early days of email.
- 8.
IEEE, “The 40th Anniversary of Ethernet”, 2013, http://standards.ieee.org/events/ethernet/index.html . Accessed February 2016, offers a brief history of the Ethernet standard.
- 9.
Internet Live Stats, “Internet Users,” www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/ . Accessed February 2016. This site delivers a continuous readout of Internet users based on statistical modeling and selected data sources.
- 10.
Of course, it did not hurt that the price of computers began to plummet at the same time.
- 11.
ARPANET is sometimes called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (DARPANET). ARPA was renamed DARPA in 1972.
- 12.
http://history-computer.com/Internet/Birth/Licklider.html . Accessed January 2016.
- 13.
For a detailed technical description of SNA in a heterogeneous environment, see R. J. Cypser, Communications for Cooperating Systems: Osi, Sna, and Tcp/Ip, Addison-Wesley, 1991.
- 14.
Not everyone agrees on the security of SNA. See Anura Gurugé, Software Diversified Services, “SNA Mainframe Security,” June 2009, www.sdsusa.com/netqdocs/SNA.Security.090721.pdf . Accessed February 2016.
- 15.
See “Top Ten Countries with Highest number of PCs,” www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-personal-computers-users-map.html .
- 16.
Thom File and Camille Ryan, “Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013”, U.S. Census Bureau, November 2014. www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-28.pdf . Accessed February, 2016.
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© 2017 Marvin Waschke
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Waschke, M. (2017). Why Is Computer Security So Weak?. In: Personal Cybersecurity. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2430-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2430-4_2
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