快猫短视频

IN A move likely to horrify civil liberties advocates, an American
cryptographer is proposing that future computers should be fitted with
electronic 鈥渓icence plates鈥�. He says this would help to combat the growth in
cybercrime, track down virus writers, and block unwanted e-mails.

Tom Cusick, a cryptographer at the State University of New York in Buffalo,
believes that the anonymity and untraceability of computer communications is one
of the main hurdles in tackling computer crime. He suggests that every outgoing
message from a computer should be tagged with a unique electronic code that
would allow it to be tracked to its origin. It would also allow users to block
messages from certain computers. 鈥淭his could go a long way to help prevent the
spread of viruses or spam,鈥� says Cusick.

The technology that could make it work is already here, Cusick points out.
Intel鈥檚 Pentium III chips have a unique processor serial number (PSN) that can
be read by any website that the computer is connected to. However, privacy
campaigners reacted so fiercely when the chip was launched that Intel switched
the feature off
(快猫短视频, 6 February 1999, p 6).
Pentium 4 chips, have no PSNs.

鈥淎 lot of people delight in the anonymity of the Internet,鈥� says Willis Ware,
an expert on computers and privacy at the RAND research organisation in Santa
Monica, California.

But Cusick says that privacy advocates should think of the PSN as simply a
licence plate. 鈥淲ould you object to vehicle licence plates on the grounds of
privacy? Most people would not,鈥� he suggests.

Ware disagrees: 鈥淭he first people to circumvent the idea would be the hackers
you are trying to catch.鈥� And enforcing the system would be difficult, he adds.
Vehicles have to be licensed with the state, and their owners are then legally
liable for them. 鈥淗ow would you enforce this with computers. I mean, how would
you know who was using a computer in a public library?鈥� he asks. Cusick admits
that there are potential problems. 鈥淚鈥檓 not claiming it鈥檚 perfect but it could
help,鈥� he says.