In reply to Bill, Mustapha posted:
>
[valid personal view deleted]
> As you see, lets please stay on topic and not try to bring things
> that
> may lead to useless political discussions!
>
Unfortunately, information has always been a political and economic
property.
China tried to control the silk trade and Venice, with rather more
success through application of risk management, protected its glass
production technology.
Radio, film, and now television and electronic data communication
provided the means to cross national boundaries to mass user
populations.
That means that the political and national views of the US and any
other country affect those of us who may live and work elsewhere.
Views within countries are usually produced by manipulation of
information. Thats not new and populations would be less keen to go
to war (commercial or hot wars) if their political leaders encouraged
full and free public debate of international issues.
We can content ourselves with learned discussion of fine technical
detail of firewalls, but the reality is that our environment is
affected just as much by political influence as any other area of
human activity.
Most of the challenges which face us in the protection of information
assets are introduced by national interest and commercial interest.
If its our national view we may be motivated to accept it
enthusiastically in the same way we may oppose a different view. On
an international forum we are all exposed to different views. If we
ignor those views its going to cost us.
Another reality is that most of the world's IT production/development
is dominated by the US. As long as thats the case other US views and
interests will influence our special area of interest, like how we
encrypt data and what sort of firewall we can produce. If there was
no national interest we would already have international agreement on
encryption, computer laws, and an International Common Criteria, and
we probably wouldnt be using the Internet.
Ian J-B
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