This really amazing and deeply worrying perspective appeared last week.
Digital pioneer Geoff Huston apologises for bringing the internet to Australia
Huston says the internet is a 'gigantic vanity-reinforcing distorted TikTok selfie' and web security is 'the punchline to some demented sick joke'. But Australia's first Privacy Commissioner thinks he's being optimistic.
By Stilgherrian for The Full Tilt | October 2, 2020 -- 01:54 GMT (11:54 AEST) | Topic: Security
Geoff Huston is an Internet Hall of Fame global connector, an honour which acknowledges his "critical role" in bringing the internet to Australia in the 1990s.
"While the Internet was still in its infancy in the US, he was able to complete the construction of a new and rapidly growing network within a few months," the organisation wrote.
On Thursday, Huston apologised for that.
"The internet is now busted, and to be perfectly frank, it's totally unclear how we can fix it. We can't make it better," said Huston, now chief scientist with the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC).
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," he said.
"I actually want to apologise for my small part in this mess we find ourselves in, because it all turned out so horrendously badly."
Huston is well-known in Australian internet technical circles for his cheerfully pessimistic presentations.
He has, for example, called the internet's traffic routing system, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a screaming car wreck. Failing to secure the domain name system is savage ignorance.
But during his opening presentation to the NetThing internet governance conference, he cast his net of doom far wider.
In Huston's eyes, the internet's collective failures include shoddy programming, haste, lack of regulation, and expensive cybersecurity organisations that are tackling the wrong problems.
"The world of programmers and code generators is actually a world of really, really shocking work," Huston said, singling out the agile methodology for particular blame.
"[Agile is] the incentive to write even shittier code, even faster, and more of it, because obviously, that's what we need," he said with considerable sarcasm.
"With no desire to actually build truly secure systems, in the rush to digitise our world of services, we're taking extraordinary risks ... We cut corners and built fast, shitty code. Maybe we should have said no and walked away from the keyboard. But I didn't. I'm sorry."
All the "shiny, bright cyber defence bodies" spend millions and trillions trying to defend internet users, Huston said, while reiterating that they are currently tackling the wrong problems.
"The problem isn't the folk who are driving all those trucks through these gaping holes. The problem is that it was the people like me who produced insanely shitty code in the first place that made all these holes," he said.
"The term 'web security' is the punchline to some demented sick joke."
"We had a lot of really wonderful expectations in the late 80s when we thought computers and communication were going to do wonderful things," he said.
"Where we've ended up is rigged elections, fake news, the destruction of livelihoods, the creation of an entirely new global economy based only on surveillance capitalism."
Huston noted that humans are social animals and that internet pioneers had recognised their ability to change the way society communicated. In doing so, they also recognised that this could change the nature of human society, but they simply didn't take this to heart, he said.
"None of us envisioned that perversion of our nobly motivated ambition into the sewage of Twitter, the deluge of waste products from the Facebook factory," he said.
"We only choose to listen to what we agree with these days. The internet's a gigantic vanity-reinforcing distorted TikTok selfie. And for my part in all this, I am sorry."
Geoff Huston is an optimist
Malcolm Crompton, once Australia's first privacy commissioner, now a privacy adviser, was even more pessimistic.
"I think that Geoff was actually being an optimist. I really worry for where we're at," Compton told the conference.
"We're not dealing with a data problem. We're not dealing with a privacy problem. We're dealing with a social issue. We're dealing with people issues," he said.
"If we forget people, humanity, dignity, respect, freedom, all those other wonderful words, then we're not heading in the right direction."
We'll use technology to get there, but technology itself isn't the solution, he said.
Crompton agrees with some parts of the final report [PDF] of the recent Digital Platforms Inquiry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), particularly the need to address the power imbalance between consumers and the major digital platforms.
"The ACCC's view is that few consumers are fully informed of, fully understand, or effectively control, the scope of data collected and the bargain they are entering into with digital platforms when they sign up for, or use, their services," the organisation wrote.
The ACCC also said people should be told more so that they can take control, and should be told in a succinct way so that they can understand.
Crompton disagreed with this, however.
"Don't expect people to be able to take control by being told more or better," he said.
"It doesn't work like that way in the world around us, guys."
Lots more here:
When you put it like this you would have to believe that the evolution of the Internet from its origins in the academic community in the US and the UK to where we now find ourselves is both almost unforeseeable and at the same time deeply disconcerting.
Forming a view as to whether the Internet and the commercial bemouths it has spawned are to the net benefit or detriment of human kind has become harder and less clear cut as their power and influence have grown.
To me there is still a great deal that I value in the services and utility offered by the Internet but equally it is becoming clear the price being paid for the convenience and ease of utility may be coming to be too high given the social distortion and division that seems to be flowing.
I have to say, right now, the way the technology is being used for misinformation, deception, division and rumour mongering is genuinely terrifying and I really wonder where we will all end up.
The societal impacts may turn out to be genuinely destructive of our civilisation if not better regulated, secured and curated. The internet can be a hopeful force for good but recently we have discovered there is a dangerous and extreme downside to the gift(s) it brings.
Do you agree with Geoff Huston and what needs to be done to restore balance, civility and utility?
David.
2 comments:
If I could pick out a few quotes (hopefully not out of context):
"We're not dealing with a data problem. We're not dealing with a privacy problem. We're dealing with a social issue. We're dealing with people issues," he said.
"If we forget people, humanity, dignity, respect, freedom, all those other wonderful words, then we're not heading in the right direction."
We'll use technology to get there, but technology itself isn't the solution, he said.
...
"The ACCC's view is that few consumers are fully informed of, fully understand, or effectively control, the scope of data collected and the bargain they are entering into with digital platforms when they sign up for, or use, their services," the organisation wrote.
The ACCC also said people should be told more so that they can take control, and should be told in a succinct way so that they can understand.
Crompton disagreed with this, however.
"Don't expect people to be able to take control by being told more or better," he said.
"It doesn't work like that way in the world around us, guys."
The whole of the My Health Record value proposition was that patients would better manage their health if they were in control of their data and their healthcare.
In the case of My Health Record, the government has failed to even given patients access to their data, never mind persuade them to take control of their health.
The take away smiles for me are:
The world of programmers and code generators is actually a world of really, really shocking work," Huston said, singling out the agile methodology for particular blame.
"[Agile is] the incentive to write even shittier code, even faster, and more of it, because obviously, that's what we need," he said with considerable sarcasm.
Thanks for posting David
Post a Comment