Rein Turn

Resiliency of the computerized society

Computers support nearly every functional area of a modern society. Consequently, when malfunctions or software errors occur, or when computing support is not available for other reasons, disruptions may result. In networked systems, disruptions may spread and seriously impair an entire functional area of the country. Has computerization produced a new vulnerability for society? Or is society intrinsically resilient and able to absorb large disruptions without grave and lasting societal consequences? This paper analyzes these and related questions. The conclusion is that modern societies (at least the United States) still appear to be resilient. Suggestions for maintaining resiliency are made.

Information privacy issues for the 1990s

Information privacy deals with protecting individuals against potential violations of their rights due to collection, storage, and use of personal information by the government and private sector organizations. The privacy protection laws enacted in the 1970s are inadequate and limited in scope. New applications of computer-communications technology involving personal information are now emerging for the decade of the 1990s and create new potentials for privacy violations. The basics of privacy protection, examples of the new technologies, and the need for new privacy laws are discussed.<<ETX>>

Security, Privacy, Safety and Resiliency in Computation

Recent advances in computer technology are making available, at acceptable cost, computer systems with virtually unlimited processing power, storage capacity, and capability for data communication. The very large scale integration (VLSI) technology permits placing on single chips tens of thousands of logic circuits or millions of bits of memory, and to mass-produce these for near-negligible cost [1]. It is economical, therefore, to maximize the use of computer technology in any system. Such use produces old products and services in new, digital form, and engenders new services or products. The digital telephone, electronic funds transfer systems (EFTS), and the “fifth generation” knowledge-based information systems [2] are examples of such new developments.

Privacy protection and transborder data flows

In the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the growth of internationally operated computer-communication systems. In these systems, in essentially a single continuous operation, data are transmitted from terminals to computers in networks that may span several countries or several continents, the requested processing is performed, and results are returned. In other cases, data files are maintained online in international, remotely accessible networks. These networks are operated by vendors of remote computing and/or information services, industry associations, or private corporations (especially the so-called multinational corporations). Some of the data transmitted in these systems are personal data about individuals.

Technical aspects of privacy protection

Laws now in effect in the United States grant certain privacy rights to individual citizens vis-a-vis federal agencies, state government agencies in several states, and certain organizations in the private sector that maintain personal information on them in automated record-keeping systems. Pending are bills to extend privacy protection to the entire private sector. Implementation of privacy protection requirements involves numerous technical considerations that are discussed in this paper. Unless these technical aspects and their limitations are taken into account when the privacy protection requirements are legislated, implementation of the requirements may turn out to be technically infeasible or economically unacceptable and, correspondingly, protection provided may be largely illusory.