Future Concerns About Internet Service

Free speech may not be at the forefront of your mind when you’re deciding what company to go with for your internet connection. You, like most other average users, are probably more concerned with questions about how much you’ll pay, whether DSL, wireless or cable would provide better internet service, and so on. But in the next few years, some of the biggest issues surrounding the internet will center on things like freedom of speech and security.

The issue of security is one that virtually every regular user of an internet service is already used to. Most people still think of this issue in terms of personal security. You are undoubtedly aware of computer viruses, Trojans and malware, and there are all sorts of programs to help you block those. You may also have done financial business online, trusting that the businesses or banks have made their websites completely secure. Yet there are still dangers of hackers getting in through inadequate security systems and either funneling money away or, sometimes worse, committing identity theft from customer records. So network services will need to work harder to make systems secure against ever more clever and devious hackers.

Security issues extend much farther than just to individuals or single businesses, however. Cyber attacks on an entire country’s internet infrastructure have happened more than once in the past few years. For example, in 2007, the country of Estonia, one of the most wired countries in the world, had its infrastructure attacked by what appeared to be hackers working out of Russia. In that attack, Estonian citizens pretty much had no internet service for several days, particularly for banking and government functions.

Between attempts by governments to impose censorship on the internet, personal and national security issues, and questions of who has the digital rights to what internet material, internet service could get a lot more complicated in the near future. Questions of DSL versus wireless or whether to start a blog could be swallowed up by a fear of downloading or emailing files, not to mention worries about whether anything you say online might come back to haunt you, and a large-scale concern about whether or not “Big Brother” is watching your every online move.