Secure Collaboration As the methods and modes of communication continue to evolve, challenges will mount for businesses trying to secure their data and for law enforcement looking to monitor communications as part of their investigations.

That was the theme of the keynote that Sun Microsystems chief security officer and renowned cryptographer Whitfield Diffie delivered at the AT&T Cyber Security Conference. The growth of virtual communities across the Web as a communications channel creates a double-edged sword in this respect.

Second Life and other virtual communities offer a growing abundance of information, although this information will ultimately need to be protected if virtual communities are to grow as meaningful channels of business-to-business and business-tocustomer communication. Diffie believes that with millions of people joining Second Life and companies building facilities there, it may be that [virtual communities] become the preferred medium of human communication.

This growing volume of information opens the opportunity to use virtual communities as a source of intelligence, and communications will always be spied on. Of course, the volume of businesses present in virtual communities such as Second Life will have to grow before they become a meaningful source of information. Once this happens, though, watch out.

Diffie believes that communication always outstrips the ability to protect it. Do you wonder who would be interested in gathering intelligence floating through virtual communities?

The answer is businesses, governments (domestic and foreign), and reporters-the same entities that have adapted every other form of communication preceding the Web.

Diffie believes the future will be a golden age for intelligence. PROJECT FOCUS

What is your answer to the following question: "As we create new and better ways to collaborate- what happens to information security?"