When Charles Dickens wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", he was referring to the time of French Revolution, an event which ended the thousand-year rule of kings in France and established the nation as a republic. One of the precursors to the French Revolution was the "Age of Enlightenment", an intellectual movement leading the world toward progress, out of a long period of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny known as "The Dark Ages". Science, reason, philosophy, art, music, and literature flourished.

But the French Revolution was followed hard upon by the "Reign of Terror", when thousands of French nobles and others considered enemies of the revolution were executed.

Of course, it was difficult for those living during that time to see the context of the events as clearly as we do now. Just as we may not see what an amazing time we live in. Not in recorded history, has the average person had the resources to learn, to communicate, to explore, to grow, and to prosper, that we have available to us today. We truly live in our own present day "Age of Enlightenment".

Taking of the Bastille - July 14, 1789

IMP1:
The first node of the ARPANET,
which evolved into the Internet,
placed into service on 9/2/1969

Our own present day "Revolution" erupted quietly on April 30, 1993, when CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be available to anyone, free of charge. Ideas and events had been converging for several years prior, putting in place the technology that enabled a graphical interface for the Internet (known as a web browser). Though now almost forgotten, Mosaic, the first mainstream browser, opened up the Internet to the average person, and revolutionized the way we communicate, shop, work, and live.

But the Internet also has a dark side, our own present-day "Reign of Terror". From minor annoyance to acts of cyber-terrorism, criminals use the power and anonymity of the Internet to harm others. They inconvenience us through spam, damage our systems with viruses, defraud us with false advertising, use scams to steal our money, use software to steal our identities, cripple our businesses and institutions with "Denial-of-Service attacks", and hijack our computers to launch their attacks. Whether motivated by greed, lust, hate, or insanity, their target is us.

So while it is the best of times, it can also be the worst of times if we are not careful.

With this in mind, ScientIS is pleased to present our Internet Security web site. A long time in the making, our Internet Security web site offers a wealth of useful information and resources, collected and condensed from extensive research. Intended to help protect our clients, families, and friends, we hope it will be of interest and usefulness to you and yours. As always, ScientIS is here to help if you have any questions.