Large Worms Threaten Internet

The specter of a large-scale sabotage on the Internet was raised anew last year with the release of Conficker, an internet worm that crawled out of Eastern Europe through botnets to disrupt 9 million operating systems worldwide.

Though Conficker has been controlled, the internet remains a lawless, unpatrollable realm signifcantly exposed to nefarious purposes. Some researchers are calling for an entirely new online framework to replace the current one. Stanford’s Clean Slate Project puts a strong emphasis on mobile technology as the internet’s next frontier. In contrast to the solid state version, mobile infrastructure is still young enough to allow for a system of safeguards where users are verified and vetted, and conflicts like Conficker can be unmasked before they wreak havoc. Can any big thinkers share their experiences in the murky world of botnets?