Q: Why Are We Still Getting Hacked? A: Security Technology Is Built On False Assumptions.

BOSTON, Oct. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Fraud and predation pervade everyday online experience. Identities – and cash – are stolen in batches. As the information security industry assures us "we're working on it," people grow ever more wary of their Internet experience even as they come to depend upon it more and more.

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Though the term has gone out of fashion, the Information Highway continues to live up to its name. The Internet and phone networks are, as always, outdoor public transport facilities.

Wes Kussmaul, author of Quiet Enjoyment, says, "It's as though we're living and working in a cardboard box by the side of the street. As long as people keep their files, hold their meetings, and let their kids hang out alongside a busy highway, the disaster will get worse."

Kussmaul goes on to note that the problem is not a broken Internet; the Information Highway serves well as an outdoor public transport system. Rather, the problem is with the way we use the Internet. We do things on the outdoor public transport system that should be done in indoor spaces.

"Almost all existing information security technology depends upon the ability to determine the intentions and character of the sender of a stream of bits," says the author, who then asks, "Isn't that like asking a building's lobby receptionist to determine the intentions and character of everyone who walks through the door? Doesn't your common sense tell you that's impossible? Instead, in the real world, the receptionist asks for ID, establishing who's accountable for what happens while the visitor is in the building. That's much more effective than trying to guess whether they're friend or foe."

As the fault is not with the highway, neither is it with us users of the highway. We do things on the outdoor highway for the simple reason that online buildings don't exist.

Yet the technology and methods for building online indoor spaces are quite established and have proven reliable. "We can have secure online buildings," says the author.

In Quiet Enjoyment, Kussmaul explains how secure online spaces can be created and maintained by combining the methods and procedures of the real estate professions with proven but widely overlooked digital "ID-PKI" construction materials. Such "online indoor spaces" or "online buildings" let users control the use of information about themselves, delivering meaningful privacy. Often, marketers and others give lip service to privacy but in reality are threatened by tools that deliver meaningful privacy.

As the founder of Delphi Internet Services Corporation, which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News America Corp., Wes Kussmaul has been conceiving and creating secure online spaces since 1981.

Written for non-technologists, Quiet Enjoyment, 457 pages, ISBN 978-1-931248-05-1, published by PKI Press, is available in ebook and print form from https://pkipress.com and other booksellers. Review copies available.

PKI Press was established in 2001 to serve readers interested in issues of identity, authentication, privacy, and online community.

Contact: Harvey Wharfield, Post Oak Associates
(978) 635-9586 | Email

SOURCE PKI Press

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