Shawn Henry, the former FBI executive assistant director, has declared that the United States is losing the war on internet security.

Michael Joseph Gross wrote about "World War 3.0" in the May 2012 issue of Vanity Fair:

" There is a war under way for control of the Internet, and every day brings word of new clashes on a shifting and widening battlefront. Governments, corporations, criminals, anarchists--they all have their own war aims... The War for the Internet was inevitable--a time bomb built into its creation. The war grows out of tensions that came to a head as the Internet grew to serve populations far beyond those for which it was designed. Originally built to supplement the analog interactions among American soldiers and scientists who knew one another off¬-line, the Internet was established on a bedrock of trust: trust that people were who they said they were, and trust that information would be handled according to existing social and legal norms. That foundation of trust crumbled as the Internet expanded.

Gross will join The Daily Circuit Monday to discuss his findings and what lies ahead for Internet policy. James Lewis, a senior fellow and the director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, will also join the discussion.

"The internet was not built or designed to be secure and when you realize that - that it's probably insecurable the way we do it now -- that means you have to realize that it's just an endless range of opportunities for criminals," Lewis said.

The government has to be the ultimate guarantor of stability, he said.

"We don't ask airlines to defend our airspace; we don't say that because private people generally own much of our ocean property, we don't need a Navy," Lewis said.

KERRI'S TAKEAWAY

It's very difficult to avoid being compromised on the internet. Hackers are always one step ahead.

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