Internet faces 'turbulent times'

11 November 2010 Last updated at 10:51 ET

The internet could face years of instability as it moves to a new addressing system, one of the network's original architects has warned.

Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, spoke as the UK was urged to begin using the new addressing system.

With current addresses due to run out in 2012, nations and businesses must get on with switching, said Mr Cerf.

During the switch internet links could become unreliable, making sites and services hard to reach, Mr Cerf said.

"This has to happen or the internet will stop growing or will not be growable," he said of the move to the addressing system.

The net has grown to its current size using version 4 of its addressing scheme (IPv4), which allows for about 4.3 billion addresses.

Estimates suggest that this pool of addresses will be exhausted by the end of January 2012.

Priority issue

A system with a far larger pool of addresses has been created, called IPv6, but progress towards using it has been sluggish.

"The business community needs to understand that this is an infrastructure they are relying on and it needs to change for them to continue to grow and to rely on it," Mr Cerf said.

He criticised global businesses, saying they were "short-sighted" for not making the shift sooner.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

There's work to be done. It's not massive work but it is meticulous work"

End Quote Vint Cerf Google

"They cannot grow their business if they do not have an address space to grow it into," he added.

The problem of the switchover will be exacerbated, said Mr Cerf, because the two addressing systems are not compatible.

As parts of the internet do eventually convert to IPv6 those trying to get at the parts still on IPv4 may not reach the site, resource or service they were after.

The net would not stop during the switch, said Mr Cerf, but access could get "spotty".

That instability could last years, he suggested, as even search giant Google - his current employer - took three years to get its IPv6 network up and running.

"There's work to be done," he said.

"It's not massive work but it is meticulous work."

Mr Cerf was the keynote speaker at a launch event for 6UK, a non-profit group set up to get UK businesses converting to the new addressing scheme.

Currently only about 1% of data sent over the internet is wrapped in IPv6 packets, said Mr Cerf, adding that moving to using the bigger address space should now be a global priority.

Some nations, such as China and the Czech Republic, had made great strides in using IPv6 but others had not even started.

"There is turbulence coming," said Nigel Titley, chairman of RIPE, the body that hands out Europe's allocation of IPv4 addresses.

He said it was only a matter of time before the shortfall of addresses started to hit business.

Attempts to get more people online, close digital divisions or to boost e-commerce could all be hampered by a lack of addresses, Mr Titley said.

The key to accelerating the shift to IPv6 would be making internet service providers (ISPs) offer the service to their customers, he said, something too few were doing at the moment.

"Sooner or later BT is not going to be able to provision a new broadband customer," said Mr Titley. "That's when the accountants might wake up."

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Inequalities divide UK net users

11 November 2010 Last updated at 08:56 ET

More Britons than ever have access to the internet, but inequalities remain between those with high and low incomes, official figures show.

In its first ever collation of trends in "e-society", the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that some 19.2 million households now have net access.

But that includes just 26% of those on the lowest incomes, the report says.

Families and children are at the heart of UK web use, with 83% of families with children having online access.

The figures, published by the ONS, show that the proportion of UK households online has grown from 57% in 2006 to 73% in 2010.

Of those, 96% of the highest 10% of earners were online, compared to little more than one-quarter of the lowest 10%.

A nation of bankers

However, the costs of access and technology were not cited as the most important factor keeping people offline.

An increasing proportion of people - almost 40% - said they simply do not need the internet at home, while some 22% complained that a lack of skills hampered their efforts.

The new research also highlights emerging trends among web users.

By 2009, some 44% of UK internet users had a profile on at least one social networking site, the report says - double the number who had one in from in 2007.

E-mail remained the most frequently-used online activity, used by 90% of respondents, with information resources and travel planning the next most popular.

More than half of those asked (54%) said they used internet banking, making it the UK's fourth most well-used internet activity.

Children's growing early adoption of new technology is also evident. Two-thirds of children aged 5-15 who own a mobile phone had their device by the time they were 10, figures show.

A further 27% had acquired their phone by the time they were eight years old.

Concerns remain over the vulnerability of young children and teenagers to sexually inappropriate content or behaviour online, with 59% described as "very worried" or "rather worried" about their children's online activities.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

Google offers Samaritans link-up

11 November 2010 Last updated at 06:25 ET

Google has launched a link-up with Samaritans, displaying the charity's helpline number in response to UK search queries relating to suicide.

Web users entering the word "suicide" or the phrase "commit suicide" will now be shown a red telephone icon at the top of the list of results.

The icon will showcase contact details for Samaritans.

The service, which is designed to be more prominent than advertisements, was first introduced in the US in April.

Google says it aims to connect people who are depressed, suicidal or in distress to information that could help them seek advice and support.

"People turn to the internet for information and advice all the time," said Google's UK chief, Matt Brittin.

"We hope that by adding a highly visible link on searches relating to suicide, Google can help guide those who are vulnerable, distressed or suicidal to the renowned expertise and support service offered by Samaritans."

However, only searches involving "suicide" appear to bring up the direct Samaritans result. In addition, the only direct link to Samaritans' website appears to the right, in Google's section reserved for paid advertising.

More general searches on the subject without using the specific word appear to return a welter of unfiltered web results, and no telephone contact for Samaritans.

A spokeswoman for Google said the system had been extensively tested in the US and was being developed in conjunction with the paid AdWords service.

More terms were likely to be added as the service matured over time, she added.

Samaritans welcomed Google's move, calling the new feature a "positive step".

"The internet is a rapidly expanding phenomenon that allows people to access huge amounts of information, much of which is helpful but some of which can occasionally be dangerous," said chief executive Catherine Johnstone.

"It is therefore important that vulnerable and distressed people are steered towards safe places such as Samaritans."

Samaritans in the UK offer confidential support by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 08457 90 90 90.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds

EU 'must improve' cyber defences

10 November 2010 Last updated at 12:31 ET

Europe needs to do more to prepare itself for cyber attacks, an EU report has concluded.

The judgement follows a simulation of how member states would deal with a sustained attack on their networks.

The simulation tested how countries would cope if international net connections failed to work, leaving citizens, businesses and public bodies unable to access online services.

Future tests must involve the private sector, the report said.

Private sector

Cyber Europe 2010, a so-called "cyber stress test", aimed to give member states better understanding of how to handle such cyber incidents and create best practices for the future.

Organisers said that while the exercise met its stated aims, it revealed that more still needs to be done.

"Member states need to do more with their national security exercises," said Ulf Bergstrom, a spokesman for the organisers, the European Network Security Agency (Enisa).

"Not enough member states are doing such exercises and they must increase their efforts."

"Countries need proper policies about what to do if channels break down, how communications will function and what the roles and responsibilities are," he added.

The report also concluded that future simulations should include the private sector.

"The networks are largely owned by the private sector and they should be involved," said Mr Bergstrom.

UK plans

A pan-European cyber attack is a real possibility, Mr Bergstrom suggested.

"All systems are interconnected and cross national boundaries. These networks are crucial for the European economy and that is why are are co-operating at a European level," he said.

There were 30 European countries involved in the European simulation.

A full report into the exercise will be published at the beginning of next year.

UK Defence minister Nick Harvey said this week that it was just "a matter of time" before terrorists used the internet to launch an attack.

The UK plans to spend �650m over the next four years on a National Cyber Security Programme, aimed at protecting individuals and the national infrastructure from hostile computer attacks.

Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds