'The internet will collapse in 2006'

Helsinki, Finland: Computer viruses and so-called spam e-mail may cause the internet to collapse in the near future, a Finnish researcher warned on Monday.

Based on current trends, the internet will collapse in 2006, Hannu H Kari, professor at the Helsinki University of Technology, told the Finnish news agency STT.

Problems facing the internet are not only linked to technology, he said.

"There are many bad people who want to create chaos on purpose," said Kari, who has in the past voiced doubts about the internet's future.

Kari said spam and viruses are the main culprits. The next stage is that the loosely organised global network will function less and less smoothly, and become progressively more prone to manipulation.

The result will be that the volume of spam in the network passes the pain limit and undermines the credibility of information gathered from the internet.

Other threats to the internet include security holes that can used by anyone, regardless of location. Skilled users can also gain control over thousands of computers and use them to launch attacks.

In order to salvage the internet, Kari said more pro-active measures are needed. Infrastructure and software need to be improved to prevent the effects of attacks. There is also a need to improve user identification.

"Currently there are no guarantees that a named sender is the real sender of an e-mail," Kari said.

-- Sapa-DPA

Frankly, I'm more worried about the government attempting to regulate the internet.

Today's newspaper article re: "New FCC Rules" prompted one think-tank to observe:

Congress has already gone after indecency on the internet, even though the courts have struck them down several times," said Adam D. Thierer, director of communications at the Cato Institute in Washington [DC]. He went on to say, "You can bet your bottom dollar they will continue those efforts."

If it went George ... we could get real lives

One word spam i had to cancel an email address i had for 12 years because of spam couldent stop it and i know how.

Want to fight back.

http://www.astalavista.net/

Ummm, NO

in 1999,Every one said that the world will destroy on 31 Dec 99,Bu It didn't happen So i think that this internet threat is not much that deadly.So don't worry folks

Best way to prevent spam in your account is to make sure your email address *never* appears on a website *anywhere*. After 1 year my personal account is still almost spam free. Google for your email address !!

I hope the internet does get choked up by spammers at some point, because that will be the day that governments and angry mobs start tracking them down, nailing them up and burning them alive. Maybe sometime thereafter we will be free of this slime of humanity.

Helsinki University of Technology is quite famous for anti-virus work etc.

Sure, I had to increase my speed to cope with the increased number of spam (and virus mails) receiving every day.

I am confident, counter mesures will be found against spam and virus. The technology is not stopping.

If it went George ... we could get real lives

Why would you want too?

Seems to me Chang supplies would be somewhat difficult to get hold of then!

(Mental note, buy Chang shares at end 2005!)

I've heard about two counter measures to spam. One is to charge a very small fee for sending email, but to spammers it would add up to a huge amount. If the recipient postively identifies the sender, the transaction can be canceled. Another is to make the sender solve a computationally (for a computer) difficult problem.

hi'

spam is like commercials on tv for couch-potatoes who have the phone right next to them ready to be picked up when they are attracked like flies to a new commercial ...

one reply and you are done ...

never ever reply to one, just delete, those who tell, "if you want to cancel ..blabla" are some of the worst, click on that da#n link and you enter a new level in the datebase

ignore or change address, never leave your address anywhere on the net ...

use tricks when you post your address on a site.

except on yahoo, I never get any spam on my regular other boxes...

and telling the net wil be over in 2 years is a bit like predicting the end of the world for tomorrow, isn't it?

just a bit pessimistic

there are as many white hat as black hat on the web, don't worry, just have to educate the mass of users, tell them to read magazine about all this and stop to think that this special mail will give them a hudge c#ck or will deliver them millions bucks ... big task

we should make a serious study about how educated are the users of the web, are the users aware of how things go here?

since I work in this field, I never seen so many ignorant people about the thing, they use but haven't a clue of how it works

have a computer, link it to phone line, and off they go ...

it's like tv and phone

may be they should read "1984" again

francois

Mabe the internet will collapse in 2006, but with all the thrown up buildings in pattaya being filled with people before the concreat has dried there's just as much chance of pattaya collapsing in 2005 !