[asterisk-biz] ANI

[Steve Totaro]

Trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-05-15 at 00:15 -0400, Steve Totaro wrote:
>   
>> Originally it was a few trusted nodes and the only real security was
>> physical, meaning access to a terminal.  ARPA/DARPAnet security guards
>> certainly would not let just anyone access a terminal.
>>     
>
> I do not think that there were DARPA guards at the universities that
> designed and built the first parts of the internet.  Remember DARPA
> funded it but didnt create it, that was by other university folk.  In
> addition DARPA stopped any oversight in 1975 (a year after the term
> "internet" was first notably seen) becuase their job was not to manage
> or maintain things such as this network, but it was to fund research and
> development.  As such, the policy of posting guards when they
> acknowledged it wasnt their job to manage or maintain the network seems
> questionable.
>
> The initial funding meant that it was non-commercial in nature, this
> meant that universities, researchers, and some military was there, but
> remember milnet didnt join until 1980, and split it off in 1983
> (maintaining gateways but not trafficing over the same links)
>
> Many of the initial users were scientists, librarians, computer experts
> and such.  Yeah, there was a movement in the 60s in Ohio to computerize
> book catalogs that by the 70s was an international effort.  This did
> eventually join the internet as there was in the US a multi-state effort
> to not only have these catalogs but share them.
>
> Spam had its 30th birthday just the other day (email from DEC on May 3
> 1978), where were the guards?  What about for the few hundred that
> received the original email and complained their systems costing often
> hundreds of thousands of dollars was being used for marketing.  
>
> Ok, they gave up oversight in 1975, so that means from 1962 (when DARPA
> got a guy from MIT who earlier that year was the first to publicly
> propose a global network of computers) to 1975 the guards would have had
> to been there at least in some fashion, but there wasnt milnet (joined
> in 1980) or really anything classified on the network during those
> years, and TCP didnt exist until 1973 (NCP did exist prior though).  Why
> the first attempt to connect on Oct 29, 1969 crashed at the 3rd
> character (G in LOGIN).  
>
> So now we have the years 1969-1975 for DARPA to still be in control and
> a network actually working.  You cant guard someone logging in from a
> terminal when the network itself crashes, so its unlikely they were
> guarding the terminals prior to the network actually running.  But still
> during this period nothing classified is trafficing over the network.
> It was also envisioned in 1962 by someone to be a global network of
> computers all over everywhere.  That guy was specifically snatched up by
> DARPA to further develop the network concept.  
>
> Its seeming less likely, especially since just a few years after that
> companies like DEC were there complete with sales people having access
> to it (it was a sales guy that sent the original spam message).
> Wikipedia states that it wasnt until the 80s that DEC joined, but the
> sales guy who sent the first spam was prior to this so wikipedia is
> wrong (yet again).
>
>
> Basically I dont have proof there were no guards (its almost impossible
> to prove a negative) but it doesnt look like its that probable given
> what was on the network and its state through most of the early years of
> it.  If you have some reference that states there was DARPA guards that
> restricted access to the network I would like to hear about it.  I know
> by 1979 that wasnt the case, as that was the first year I started using
> world wide networks and there were zero guards at any of the many
> terminals that I had access to.
>   
I will check with Marty and Mark (co-authors of SNMP and founders of 
PSINET).  I distinctly remember them mentioning this but I don't have a 
link to prove or disprove it yet.  I generally trust hearsay from them.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro