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Since then the Internet has become, if anything, an even more tempting target. According to the Pittsburgh-based Computer Emergency Response Team, which fields complaints from systems operators, hardly a day goes by without a computer assault of one sort or another -- from filching passwords to trying to crack military files. In the first nine months of 1994, CERT logged 1,517 incidents -- up more than 75% from 1993 -- some of them involving networks that link tens of thousands of machines. Two weeks ago, someone infiltrated General Electric's Internet link, forcing the company to pull itself off the network while it revamped its security system. "Every morning we find marks from people trying to pry open the firewall," says Michael Wolff, author of the Net Guide book series and founder of a small Internet service called Your Personal Network.
Firewalls, for those not familiar with the jargon of electronic security, are computers that act like the guards in a corporation's front lobby. They are supposed to keep the tens of millions of people with Internet access from also having access to the company's internal computer system, where precious corporate assets may be stored. Firewalls typically use passwords, keys, alarms and other devices to lock out intruders. But though such obstacles are an essential feature of any well-designed security system, experts warn that the technology of firewalls is still in its infancy. "There is no such thing as absolute security," says Steven Bellovin, co-author of Firewalls and Internet Security. "There is only relative risk."
And what about the folks on the receiving end of a mail bomb? "That's a tough one," says Vinton Cerf, an MCI executive who helped design the Internet in the late '60s. "If you knew who was sending you the mail, you could install a filter to throw it away. But trying to discard thousands of messages when you don't know where they're coming from just isn't possible."
The Internet was built to be an open and cooperative system. That's its strength -- and its weakness. "It's a fragile environment," says Pipeline founder James Gleick. "There's no cleverness in breaking a system like Pipeline. We're not MCI. We're exactly the kind of small-scale operation that gives the Internet its vitality and richness."
That's what is so odd about the so-called Internet Liberation Front. While it claims to hate the "big boys" of the telecommunications industry and their dread firewalls, the group's targets include a pair of journalists and a small, regional Internet provider. "It doesn't make any sense to me," says Gene Spafford, a computer-security expert at Purdue University. "I'm more inclined to think it's a grudge against Josh Quittner."