Dr. Vint Cerf serving as Chief Internet Evangelist for Google is well versed on the value and capabilities of the internet. At a luncheon held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., he voiced concern that the 21st century could become an information black hole unless we find ways to preserve photos, documents, and other digital content. However, this is hard to do because we don’t know how computers of the future will function.
Over 40 years ago, Dr. Cerf, Bob Kahn, and colleagues were doing research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to enable computers to communicate with each other. After a few years, the internet was developed and turned on in 1983 and would eventually change how the world communicates.
When the internet was developed, the amount of numerical address space the researchers thought would be needed was too low. Dr. Cert explained that when the internet was designed, calculations estimated that 4.3 billion terminations would be enough numerical address space, resulting in IP v. 4. However, to meet our needs today, we now need to implement IP v.6 with 128 bits of address space.
The reason we need more address space than IP v.4 is to accommodate the explosion of devices. There are estimates that there may be 50 billion devices in use by 2020. For example, light bulbs could potentially have their own IP address to enable the user to control the color and light intensity from their mobile device. To do so, you would need an internet address. So it is evident that IP v. 6 is needed now and for the future.
Dr. Cerf stressed the need for everyone to protect their own safety, security, and privacy. Even though there has been much conversation on user words, passwords, and the need to change them on a regular basis, hackers still get into systems especially if users do not change their passwords.
He also stressed how important it is to encrypt data which means that laptops, disc drives, and mobiles should be encrypted. So, today, we encrypt data not only in the data center but also as the data moves back and forth between data centers. This is done so that even if the data center is penetrated or your laptop or tablet is lost or stolen, it would be difficult for someone to extract the data.
Dr. Cerf made another point in discussing DNS SEC which is a security extension of the domain name system. For example, when you search, if for instance you go to www.google.com, your search requires numbers, so your computer looks the numbers up in the domain name system. The system then sends back an IP numerical address to protect you.
So the solution to protect the user is to use a digital signature which can digitally sign the binding between the domain name and the IP address to protect against spoofing kinds of attacks. Today DNS SEC is being implemented throughout the domain name system.
Today, Dr. Cerf is looking towards the future as he is working on the interplanetary internet at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help develop a computer network for planet to planet communication. He is hopeful that eventually communicating with planets will be an everyday event.