U.S. Wants to Build New Safer Internet Infrastructure

Say good-bye to anonymity. The US is seriously considering building a new Internet infrastructure to prevent cyber attacks.


General Michael Hayden’s presentation begins at approximately 42:20 into the video.

Several current federal officials, including U.S. Cyber Command chief Gen. Keith Alexander, want a “.secure” network for critical services such as banking that would be walled off from the public Web. Unlike .com, .xxx and other new domains now proliferating the Internet, .secure would require visitors to use certified credentials for entry and would do away with users’ Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. Network operators in the financial sector, for example, would be authorized to scan account holders’ traffic content for signs of trouble.

Nations with fewer civil liberty protections, including China, use “deep packet inspection” to search all Internet traffic for viruses — as well as anti-government content, noted James Mulvenon, a China and cybersecurity specialist. Due to privacy laws, the United States cannot monitor private network traffic using this approach. Mulvenon questioned whether such restrictions give other nation states the upper hand in cyber defense. “We still believe that anonymity is possible,” he said of America’s attitude toward freedom of expression on the Internet.