Who's keeping the U.S. Domain Name System

by Frank X. Sowa

CYBERWORLD MONITOR

by Frank X. Sowa

Who's keeping the U.S. Domain Name System

"The Company" purchase NSI

In March 1995, NSI was purchased by the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, a little-known company with $2 billion in annual sales and more than 20,500 employees world-wide, whose Board of Directors reads like a Who's Who list of former intelligence, federal laboratory, defense industry, and military operatives.

"The acquisition of Network Solutions, Inc., is the key next step in our strategy of building a full spectrum, full service global information technology business," said Michael Daniels, sector vice president, Technology Applications Sector of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)

In other words, SAIC has initiated a strategic plan to control key access and technologies of the Internet on a global scale.

SAIC began as a small group of former nuclear physicists from Los Alamos laboratories, working as consultants on secret nuclear projects for the U.S. government in 1969. Today, SAIC is an international leader in systems integration, computer systems and software development, national security, FBI and law enforcement monitoring technologies, RSA encryption devices, information technologies and many other disciplines, according to their literature. They currently manage over 5000 government and commercial contracts in research, development, services, and manufacturing. They also manage government information and military contracts in 18 other countries including Russia, Great Britain, France, and Germany.

SAIC - MORE POWERFUL THAN GOVERNMENT?

SAIC sometimes seems to dictate contract terms to government. The company recently won a contract for the U.S. Space And Naval Warfare System Command(SPAWAR). SPAWAR is the military's headquarters for command control information technology, including intelligence and surveillance, electronic warfare and peace systems. As a esult of winning the contract, SAIC managed to have some impact on getting SPAWAR to relocate from Washington to San Diego, bringing with it 1000 high-wage jobs and a $4 billion annual operating budget.

SAIC also won a $28 million contract to help the Department of Defense protect the security of its information and communication systems with advanced encryption tools. When you consider the ramifications of all this government control within the grasp ogf a single privately-held company - it's a bit frightening.

SAIC EXPANDING IN ALL DIRECTIONS

Some of the most critical defense and economic information systems running this country may be vulnerable to attack by individual hackers, organized terrorists, or even other countries, and certain defenses must be put in place. "Our ability to deal with information warfare is the major security challenge of the decade and possibly the next century," said according to SAIC's Frank Jenkins.

SAIC, in an effort to assist the government in defending the country from information warfare attacks, has launched the Center for Information Strategy and Policy (CISP). The think tank's mission goes "far beyond just information protection issues to serve as a forum and research facility to explore and debate all aspects of information warfare; how the information revolution will affect conflict in the 21st century."

SAIC's goal is to corner, and perhaps control, the new cyberspace markets globally, delivering complete commercial information technologies, security and encryption tools, advanced computer simulation and Internet solutions worldwide.

CONCERNS RAISED ABOUT SAIC's POWER

Quite a few USENET contributors are concerned about SAIC's concentration of power and control over the Internet. People are beginning to question SAIC's ability to control access to and manipulate the Internet. Most of these writers of course, haven't got a clue as to what SAIC can actually do, and what it's management's motives are.

It is evident that SAIC has more than just a business relationship with the intelligence and military communities. Over the past ten years, the firm has become an important policy advisor, and has actually taken over the MANAGEMENT OF KEY DEFENSE AND INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURES.

SAIC now runs SPAWAR, THE Internet's domain name service, and key encryption and security products, and is even shaping policies regarding anonymity and information warfare. The company has done all this in less than six months. The potential for a "Big Brother" scenario is definitely there - perhaps even probable.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

With the government driving to regulate the Internet, and with companies like SAIC stepping in to ensure that Big Brother has the proper tools to monitor the Net, a person or business may well wonder what privacy is left. After all, SAIC states that it already has the ability to track "signatures," providing real-time network monitoring of Internet traffic.

We seem to have good reason to maintain traditional BBS's and alternative networks like Fidonet. Government defense planners have always sought back up systems as an assurance agains "unfriendly network intervention". If you are concerned about privacy, perhaps you should take to heart the defense planners strategy. Tracking the Internet plus all the echomail traffic that randomly passes through public switched networks may prove impossible. Maybe there will be a rebirth of BBS's as secure networks!