There Are Some Downsides When All Data Travels On The Same Network

from the trojans,-virus,-and-crackers-oh-my! dept

While many in the technology world like the idea of all data traveling over a single internet, with applications and "smarts" at the ends of the network, rather than the middle, there are some downsides to that approach. Suddenly those applications are open to other types of problems. Right now, for instance, it's much more difficult (though, certainly not impossible) to "hack" into the phone network. However, as things move increasingly to voice over IP, you have a situation where a virus can bring down your phone network. At the same time, connections between separate networks and the internet are also increasingly becoming vulnerable to attack - such as a report coming out today that many GPRS mobile phone billing systems have been easily hacked to charge users for services they didn't request. Again, it's a situation where someone is using the internet's openness to figure out a way to exploit a phone-based application. This doesn't necessarily mean that moving everything to an IP infrastructure is bad - but it does mean there are other issues that need to be considered before running willy-nilly into the arms of good old internet protocol. I'd say that, currently, the problems are not huge - and are mostly being hyped up by companies with security products to sell. However, that doesn't mean the core issues they bring up aren't important.