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Dana Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
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Moore’s Law defines the history of technology. It held that the number of circuits etched on a given piece of silicon could double every 18 months as far as its author, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, could see. Moore’s Law has spawned constant revolutions since then, not just in computing but in communications, in science, in a host of areas. Moore’s Law applies to radios, and to optical fiber, but there are some areas where it doesn’t apply. In this blog we’ll take a daily look at new implications of Moore’s Law in real time, as it rolls forward to create our future.
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January 13, 2005

Where To Learn Net Security

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Posted by Dana Blankenhorn

Where's the best place to learn the art of network security?

My guess is it's an online gambling site.

Most such sites are based in either the UK, the Caribbean or Australia. Because of U.S. legal pressure they were already in the forefront of isolating traffic geographically, at the ISP level. Also because of U.S. pressure, they are frequently on their own when it comes to defending their business interests. (UK police, however, are apparently cooperative.)

All this means that, if you're into security, this is an opportunity.

They're also being targeted by international criminals. DDoS attacks are common, especially around major betting events like the coming Super Bowl. Sometimes the threat is rather unique -- one extortionist threatened to send out child porn in the name of a gambling site. And the payment networks that serve such sites are also subject to attack. Russia, India, China and Brazil have all been identified as home to these criminal gangs.

What seems to happen is that ferocious attacks are launched against the gambling sites because, as Willie Sutton once said of banks, "that's where the money is." These techniques then filter down to other e-commerce players -- payment processors and stores.

My guess is that if the gambling sites want a secondary source of income they should hire themselves out as security consultants.

Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Strategy | Consulting | Futurism | Internet | Security


COMMENTS

1. Jesse Kopelman on January 13, 2005 06:19 PM writes...

If NBC's Las Vegas were more successful, this could be the setting for the spinoff.

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