Viruses, Security Issues Undermine Internet

"You've heard the saying that on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog, and that's of course the problem," Van Houweling said. "Authentication will allow communities to form where people are known and therefore can be trusted."

But there's a trade-off for such security. The network becomes balkanized, with more parts of it closed to most people. Auerbach, who has been involved with ICANN and the IETF, said more security raises the "specter of central authorities."

Lynch believes the Internet will never truly be secure, though, because of the diversity of software and devices that run on it. If one has a flaw, others are vulnerable.

For years computer designers have tried to build a machine that lives up to the "orange book," a specification written by technologists at the predecessor to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It describes a bug-free, completely secure computer that has to be built in a clean room with designers who have gone through extensive background checks and are not allowed to communicate with anyone.

"There have been a few computer systems built like this for the military and they vanish, just vanish. Nobody talks about them anymore," Lynch said. "They have been created, but for the average person they may as well not exist."

Until that perfect machine is built for consumers, it will be up to people like Haugsness at the Internet Storm Center to keep the network up and running. The center is operated by the SANS Institute, a Bethesda-based nonprofit dedicated to computer security. But most of its work is done by an eclectic group of volunteers who sign on remotely from around the world, including a former National Security Council staff member and a grandmother in Iowa. Haugsness is in his late twenties and is an avid snowboarder and mountain biker.

One Sunday afternoon this month, Haugsness was at his company's office checking the storm center reports. One person said he had found a new variant of a program that allowed hackers to take over a computer by creating a "back door" through holes in its security system. There were also complaints about a few phishing e-mails that tried to trick people into giving up their personal information. Internet traffic patterns worldwide seemed fine -- only a few sections had congestion that would qualify as serious, or "red."

Nothing "super bad" so far, Haugsness concluded. All in all, only about a half-dozen documented problems. That might have been considered a disaster a decade ago. But it was a pretty good day for the Internet in 2005.