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INTERNET - A WEAPON OF WAR ?
The rapid expansion of Information Technology has created an environment
where information is readily available and anyone interested can access sit. Today
anyone with a computer and modem with the help of a telephone connection can
acquire, process and transmit vast amount of information to nearly everywhere. Local
Area Networks linking two or more computers at one time are rapidly expanding into
Wide Area Networks connecting remote areas of one country to the rest of the world.
With the Internet, the globalization of information flow and exchange is a reality.
Internet is now playing an increasingly important role in almost all types of activities. It
has played a key role in Desert Storm, the Tiananmen Square episode, the attempted
coup in Russia, the conflict in Bosnia and now is Kosovo.
What is the Internet?
Internet is an enormous global network of computers. The genesis is the US
Department of Defense sponsored Advanced Research Project Agency Network
(ARPANET) in 1970, an effort to connect researches from a distance via computers. Its
main aim at that time during cold war was to develop a networked communication
system, which would survive even a nuclear strike. This has now grown into a "network
of networks"; it integrates thousands of dissimilar computer networks world wide
through the use of technical standards that enable all types of systems to inter-operate.
Individuals connected to the Internet using their desktop computer can perform the
following: -
Exchange electronic mail, or e-mail, with any other user at any location.
Participate in offline (i.e., not current simultaneous) discussions via e-mail
with large groups of individuals interested in particular topics, using "mailing
lists" and "News Groups".
Participate in online (i.e., real-time, or current) discussions with large groups
of individuals using the "Internet Relay Chat" function.
Log on to remote computer sites worldwide using the Telnet function.
Download files from remote sites and users and upload files to remote sites
and users via the FTP, or File Transfer Protocol function (the files can be text,
graphics, sound or video).
Read complex documents composed using "Hypertext" (clicking on a
highlighted phrase on the screen takes the user into another domain, e.g.,
clicking on the word "Anthropology" creates a new screen or menu devoted to
that subject), allowing hierarchical or "non-linear" structuring of documents.
