Computer viruses and so-called spam e-mail may cause the internet to collapse in the near future, a Finnish researcher warned on Monday.
Based on current trends, the internet will collapse in 2006, Hannu H Kari, professor at the Helsinki University of Technology, told the Finnish news agency STT.
Problems facing the internet are not only linked to technology, he said.
”There are many bad people who want to create chaos on purpose,” said Kari, who has in the past voiced doubts about the internet’s future.
Kari said spam and viruses are the main culprits. The next stage is that the loosely organised global network will function less and less smoothly, and become progressively more prone to manipulation.
The result will be that the volume of spam in the network passes the pain limit and undermines the credibility of information gathered from the internet.
Other threats to the internet include security holes that can used by anyone, regardless of location. Skilled users can also gain control over thousands of computers and use them to launch attacks.
In order to salvage the internet, Kari said more pro-active measures are needed. Infrastructure and software need to be improved to prevent the effects of attacks. There is also a need to improve user identification.
”Currently there are no guarantees that a named sender is the real sender of an e-mail,” Kari said. — Sapa-DPA