A FEW years ago, the only people who were concerned about the Internet were the scientists, academics and students who used it.
The Internet today is rapidly being taken over by those with more commercial interests and words like protection, security and authentication are being heard far more frequently. This is understandable because many businesses see millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars of potential commerce flowing down the wires of the World-Wide Web.
This will not happen, we are told, if the merchants think it could easily be compromised. The one word that makes people shudder is hacker.
It is rather odd that there are those so afraid of the security of the Internet when every day people send credit card information in the most casual way.
We read the details out over the telephone and we even fax them to companies on the other side of the world when we want to buy something. Why, then, should we worry about the Internet? The average user of the telephone or the fax is not someone who could or would even be interested in tapping into somebody else's line. The technology to listen in on other people's telephone conversations, or receive copies of faxes, is not difficult to acquire or learn to use.
It is, in fact, being done by various groups and organisations, both official and not so official.