Vint Cerf is urging Internet users to get onto IPv6 and says the federal government's push to have 'back doors' to big website operations, such as Google, so it can access information for criminal and other investigative needs is a bad idea.
Often called the Father of the Internet, Cerf, who is a co-founder of the Internet, spoke to both issues during an appearance Monday at a National Press Club event.
Now Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, Cerf says a greater push is needed to get users, as well as websites, working on the next IP address platform, IPv6, in order to provide needed IP addresses to all the things now being connected to the Internet and claims there is a better way to provide government agencies access to data without having to create some sort of 'back door.'
The need for more IP addresses is all tied to the Internet of Things phenomenon in which everything from refrigerators to light bulbs are now connected online for users' access and control.
Network gear titan Cisco estimates 50 billion things will be Internet-abled by 2020.
"The next wave of stuff is the Internet of Things," Cerf said. "Every appliance you can possibly imagine, you're shifting from electromechanical controls to programmable controls. And once you put a computer inside of anything, there's an opportunity to put it on the Net."
Users will get speedier Internet service and better delivery of video and audio on IPv6, they just need to ask their ISP for access, said Cerf. Website operators and anyone running a website should be making the move to IPv6 in order to better serve users, he added.
In regard to the federal government's continuing assertion that it needs some sort of back door map to company and corporate systems for purely investigative needs, Cerf believes creating a back door will create massive security headaches.
"If you have a back door, somebody will find it, and that somebody may be a bad guy or bad guys, and they will intentionally abuse their access," Cerf said. "Creating this kind of technology is super-, super-risky; I don't think that that's the right answer."
Cerf is just the latest to voice opposition to the White House administration's move to compel big Internet players, such as Google, to provide an open door for law enforcement agencies needing information. The agency push comes after the public revelations around the National Security Agency's covert spying activities, which were revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor.
