Blog: 'Net Engineer Argues Firewalls Are a Security Distraction

'Net Engineer Argues Firewalls Are a Security Distraction
Computerworld Australia (05/30/08) Bell, Stephen

The focus on firewalls has led corporate network experts to spend less time on security in the end system, says Brian Carpenter, the former head of the Internet Engineering Task Force. Carpenter, currently a lecturer at the University of Auckland, discussed the history of the Internet as well as its challenges while giving the Institution of Engineering and Technology's annual Prestige lecture. During his "The Internet, where did it come from and where is it going?" address, Carpenter suggested that firewalls have lessened the momentum of end-to-end transparency for the Internet. He said the extended addressing scheme, IPv6, will replace the need for address translation, but Internet users are so used to conventional firewalls. There are some similarities between his view of end-to-end transfer of data and David Isenberg's concept of a "stupid" network, but he adds that the edge of today's complex networks might be difficult to define, which has also been suggested by Victoria University's John Hine. "The basic principle is still valid," Carpenter said. "It's not obvious that you will make money out of putting very complex services very deep in the network."
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