In preparing our chapter on security on the Internet, we’ve put together a collection of about 50 articles. A December 6, 2008 New York Times article by John Markoff explores the severity of the problem of cybercrime via the Internet. According to the article, more than $100 billion per year conservatively is lost to credit card bank fraud and a variety of scams on the Internet.

One of the more controversial suggestions contained in a December 8, 2008 New York Times article — also by John Markoff — is that all computer users should expect to make less use of passwords in the future and more use of a strong authentication hardware device that would help guard against hackers.

Mary Ann Beyster found an article for us in the MIT publication Technology Review. In this recent article the author, Erica Naone, talks about a flaw in the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) responsible for matching websites with their numerical IP addresses of the servers that host them. According to this article, the vulnerability is not located in the Internet hardware or software, but in the design of the DNS itself. This has gone on for years. A group of Internet specialists are meeting to recommend a solution. It will be interesting to see how they solve this problem.

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Last week was a slow one for me. Robert and I had lunch on Thursday with Jim Kidrick, president of the San Diego Air & Space Museum. He presented me with the plaque that accompanied my induction into the organization’s Hall of Fame a couple of months ago. He also give me some photos which I am having framed and will be giving out as Christmas presents.

– Bob