> A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human
> being to come to harm.
> A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such
> orders would conflict with the First Law.
> A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
> conflict with the First or Second Law.

> more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

> On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 3:02 PM, Reuven Cohen <r...@enomaly.com> wrote:

>> For nearly as long as the internet has been around there have been
>> private subnetworks called the darknets. These private, covert and
>> often secret networks were typically formed as decentralized groups of
>> people engaged in the sharing of information, computing resources and
>> communications typically for illegal activities.

>> Recently there has been a resurgence in interest of the darknet
>> ranging from the more unsavory such as P2P filesharing and botnets as
>> well as more mainstream usages such as inter-government information
>> sharing, bandwidth alliances or even offensive military botnets. All
>> of these activities are pointing to a growing interest in the form of
>> covert computing I call "dark cloud computing" whereby a private
>> computing alliance is formed. In this alliance members are able to
>> pool together computing resources to address the ever expanding need
>> for capacity.

>> According to my favorite source of quick disinformation, The term
>> Darknet was originally coined in the 1970s to designate networks which
>> were isolated from ARPANET (which evolved into the Internet) for
>> security purposes. Some darknets were able to receive data from
>> ARPANET but had addresses which did not appear in the network lists
>> and would not answer pings or other inquiries. More recently the term
>> has been associated with the use of dark fiber networks, private file
>> sharing networks and distributed criminal botnets.

>> The botnet is quickly becoming the tool of choice for governments
>> around the globe.  Recently Col. Charles W. Williamson III. staff
>> judge advocate, Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and
>> Reconnaissance Agency, writes in Armed Forces Journal for the need of
>> botnets within the US DoD. In his report he writes " The world has
>> abandoned a fortress mentality in the real world, and we need to move
>> beyond it in cyberspace. America needs a network that can project
>> power by building an af.mil robot network (botnet) that can direct
>> such massive amounts of traffic to target computers that they can no
>> longer communicate and become no more useful to our adversaries than
>> hunks of metal and plastic. America needs the ability to carpet bomb
>> in cyberspace to create the deterrent we lack."

>> I highly doubt the US is alone in this thinking. The world is more
>> then ever driven by information and botnet usages are not just limited
>> to governments but to enterprises as well. In our modern information
>> driven economy the distinction between corporation and governmental
>> organization has been increasingly blurred. Corporate entities are
>> quickly realizing they need the same network protections. By covertly
>> pooling resources in the form of a dark cloud or cloud alliance,
>> members are able to counter or block network threats in a private,
>> anonymous and quarantined fashion. This type distributed network
>> environment may act as an early warning and threat avoidance system.
>> An anonymous cloud computing alliance would enable a network of
>> decentralized nodes capable of neutralizing potential threats through
>> a series of counter measures.

>> My question is: Are we on the brink of seeing the rise of private
>> corporate darknets aka dark clouds? And if so, what are the legal
>> ramifications, and do they out weight the need to protect ourselves
>> from criminals who can and will use these tactics against us?

>> (Original Post: http://elasticvapor.com/2008/07/rise-of-dark-cloud.html)

>> --
>> --

>> Reuven Cohen
>> Founder & Chief Technologist, Enomaly Inc.

>> blog > www.elasticvapor.com
>> -
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