LETTER:Insecure on the unpoliced Internet

From Mr Tony Wells

Sir: Your article, "Internet `seduced' schoolboys into credit card fraud" (8 June), raises a number of security and legal issues about the nature of the Internet, and the risks to organisations that are connected to it. The advantage of the Internet over other public data networks is that the number of individual users is huge - over 40 million users and growing.

The Internet is a public network which enables the connection of computer systems to other computer systems. Because the Internet is not really "owned" by anyone, there is little accountability for the information content accessed via the Internet - there are at present almost no restrictions on the carrying of information. Hence the regular stories about pornography and the information on "how to commit fraud" which is regularly and anonymously posted on Internet bulletin boards.

One of the things that makes the structure of the Internet so easy to expand is that there is virtually no inherent security in the Internet itself. Each computer is responsible for its own security; there is no inter-computer security on the Internet. There is no guarantee that information can be kept private, can be proved to have come from a particular source, nor be proved to have arrived at the intended destination.

Therefore, companies that connect their computer systems to the Internet must realise that there are over 40 million potential hackers who could, if there is no proper protection, get into their computer system and wreak havoc. The individual responsible for a computer system with an Internet connection without proper protection from hacking may be in breach of one or more Acts of Parliament, including the Data Protection Act, and the Financial Services Act. They may also be breaching rules and guidelines appropriate to their organisation's sector. I should also point out that company directors, under English law, are required to protect company assets and computer data is regarded as a company asset.

Yours sincerely,

TONY WELLS

Zergo

Basingstoke, Hampshire

15 June