USE AND MISUSE OF INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
Development of the Internet
J.C.R. Licklider is often referred to as the father of the Internet; he is credited with the initial idea of an interactive computing and “Galactic Network”. His initial concepts were developed through DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1962.
During the 1990’s Tim Berners-Lee is considered by most people as the person who opened up the potential of the Internet as a global communication tool. The first mainstream Web Browser was released in 1993. Within five years there was a staggering 50 million users worldwide communicating and sharing information. (ref 1)
Today the WWW (World Wide Web) is the largest single source of information available in the world. People use the Internet to obtain information, to pay bills, for shopping, make appointments, search for old friends, the list is endless. As the desire to redress the work-life balance ever increases so does the popularity of the Internet. People can now go online to buy music, clothing, concert tickets, and even do the grocery shopping, all saving precious time and often money.
This table shows the current level of use of the WWW throughout the world. The number of users has increased to a staggering 1.4 billion users since 1998. (ref 2)
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The rapid growth of the Internet has not been without problems, in particular security and fraud. During the 1990’s these risks were relatively low being limited to plagiarism or defamation, because the Internet was only used for communication and information gathering. Now that people are using the Internet for personal banking, shopping, and bill paying, the opportunity for fraud and identity theft is immense. Computer viruses...