Future of Information Technology

Predicting what the future holds is difficult to foretell. In the coming years, as computers become smarter, more sophisticated, and more flexible, becoming more like us, information security advances as well. Hackers may develop sophisticated equipments and techniques to invade someone’s files and information, and thus the key trends of security. Whatever happens tomorrow, are never-ending wonders that will never be uncovered until we get there.

The article Future World by Eugene Spafford, mentioned different aspects tht might happen in the future, from the future of computing world, computer and commercial security, and the people itself. The author predicted that the future of computing world will have very fast, cheap worldwide connectivity. In the computer security world, the author stated that firewalls and network-based intrusion detection systems are not really a big deal anymore since the perimeter to defend is no longer undefined. In the commercial side, as usual, companies or firms are still trying to catch the culprit and try to enforce the law. The author also foretold that specialists can be found in two places; the end-user who will be responsible for security at their on workstation. Although the author predicted an outline that is possible to happen 10 to 20 years from now, the author did not really emphasize what might happen with the key factors that influence the current level of information security: the threats, operating systems, security tools, the Internet, and cryptographic methods.

While it is extremely difficult to know what the threat to information systems actually is, it is probably easier to point what direction it is going. Most computer crimes are internal affairs, and most external computer crimes arise, not from systematic attack, but by small groups, or, more likely, random wickedness and even curiosity run berserk. Another aspect to predict is the operating system. Most of the more serious weaknesses in computer systems lie with the operating system itself, what could be the possible trend of operating system, its strengths and weaknesses, compatibility features and more. Security tools should also be included in the author’s prediction. Current trends in information security threat it is a problem that can be solved by adding a patch here and there. Neither firewalls nor intrusion detectors are altogether reliable