You know internet access regulation is coming

You just don't know when.

Former CIA Director George J. Tenet has called for new security measures to guard against attacks on the United States that use the Internet, which he called "a potential Achilles' heel."

"I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," he told an information-technology security conference in Washington, "but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control."

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The Internet "represents a potential Achilles' heel for our financial stability and physical security if the networks we are creating are not protected," Mr. Tenet said. Known adversaries, including "intelligence services, military organizations and non-state actors," are researching information attacks against the United States.

Within the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security has the lead role in protecting the Internet from terrorism. But the department's head of cyber-security recently quit amid reports that he had clashed with his superiors.

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Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited to those who can show they take security seriously.

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The national press, including United Press International (UPI), were excluded from yesterday's event, at Mr. Tenet's request, organizers said.

VHeadline article

Which gives us a little bit of an idea about Mr. Tenet's ideas on "free and open society".

Mr. Tenet, who retired in July as director of the CIA after seven years, warned that al Qaeda remains a sophisticated group, even though its first-tier leadership largely has been destroyed. It is "undoubtedly mapping vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our telecommunications networks," he said pointing out that the modernization of key industries in the United States is making them more vulnerable by connecting them with an Internet that is open to attack.

And let us not forget this, which tells us just how al Qaeda might have come by internet access to information we'd prefer they not have. (Another version: Promis Software - Bin Laden's Magic Carpet)