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The biggest risk to future distributed systems, said James Gosling, is the combination of high-speed networks, powerful PCs, pervasive standards, insecure consumer electronics protocols and smart people who have lots of spare time on their hands.
“When consumer electronics companies start to attempt networking, its frightening,” the Sun vice president told his keynote audience at last months Borland Conference, in Anaheim, Calif. “You read their specifications and say, That was a bad idea 20 years ago—and it still is. You cant just add a coat of secure paint when youre done.”
Recalling his youthful experiments in unauthorized exploration of what he could make a system do, Gosling said, “I dont worry about evil empires—I worry about me.”