Technology continues to infuse every aspect and element of our lives.  Privacy issues mean something different today than they meant 10 or 20 years ago, and certainly individuals from 100 and more years in the past would have a difficult time even comprehending what privacy means to us--this instant messaging, always cell-phone connected, email obsessed culture.

Consider the new GPS technology that is likely to make its way into cars in the very near future.  This is not merely an information source for the driver and passengers of the car.  Rather, it is a two-way device that is always sending trip information back to a central machine server somewhere in the world.  What is the impact on consumers?  For one, we're told that there will be a variety of beneifts to make the inclusion of this feature a "must have" for automobile shoppers.  For example, suppose your car has been stolen.  With a simple call to the "Car Security Office" for your vehicle, you can have the car both disabled and immediately located.  Why, that's a lovely feature, to be sure... but it begs the quesiton as to what else can be done.

Here is a darker example.  With the two-way GPS capability, those helpful folks at the "Car Security Office" can track the time and location information of any car in their charge.  In other words, someone will know exactly where you've been and when you've been there.  So if you pass a certain "checkpoint" at a particular time, then you cross another checkpoint, a simple math calculation can determine whether or not you've been speeding.  Be prepared to receive that ticket in the mail ( or email, as the case may be).  Those red light cameras don't seem so sinister when you think of where technology can take us.

The truth is, all that technology that gives us so much information customized to our personal preferences (I love that Amazon.com can recommend books to me that I would like to read) does so by observing us and our desires and behaviors.  What went unnoticed in years past, giving each of us a societal "clock of invisibility" of sorts, is now a part of the information infrastructure system consisting of numerous databases, all tied together through the Internet.  We can no longer hide in the shadows, because the shadow spaces are disappearing at an ever increasing pace.  We've all heard the argument "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you should have nothing to hide."  While there is a certain logic to it, does that account for depth of the human spirit's need for privacy--not to hide malicious deeds--but simply for privacy's sake?

- Hap Aziz

When we think of computer network security, the most common picture that comes to mind is that of the information technology professional working with a rack of servers and routers in a network "closet" somewhere, often in some large office building, with people rushing between offices and cubicles, purposefully about their business.  But that's not the only picture we should have.  Take a look at the linked article here, for example.

Computer networks, along with the associated network security challenges, are part of the fabric of our civilization--and as such, the networks are found everywhere, even in the sky.  Of course, this means that the work of computer network security specialists has direct impact on the physical safety of all sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances.  If you are interested in a career in computer network security, this is certainly an important point to consider.  Are you willing to take on the responsibility?

- Hap Aziz