In theory at least, the Wild West days of the Internet are over. Based upon the inventions articulated in his five-patent suite, inventor, Harry Emerson III, has mapped out a union between our secure and venerable telephone system - AKA POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) - and the hyper-evolving, media-rich Internet which is so famously not one bit secure. As it evolves, he believes this next generation telecommunications system, dubbed IronPipe(TM), will have huge implications for national security as well as tremendous new revenue opportunities for the carriers and supply chains which serve them. Conceived in response to what he views as the seriously flawed paradigm which is currently developing as telecommunications migrate to the Internet, Mr. Emerson says he designed IronPipe(TM) to offer an alternative with a high degree of security. The Internet has produced something akin to a gold rush experience for those mining its resources and developing its vast potentialities, he said. But, in the midst of this frenzy, he has observed that fundamental requirements of privacy, secrecy, and security are seldom openly discussed when it comes to Internet-based phone services known as "Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems such as SKYPE, which are rapidly being developed.
These are serious issues, he maintains, and they need to be fully considered by users such as corporations, telecommunications carriers, VoIP carriers, law enforcement agencies, and federal and state governments, as well as by the millions of Internet using individuals who are concerned with their own personal privacy. According to Mr. Emerson our current state of vulnerability came about because we have turned a blind eye to these issues of privacy, secrecy and security, combined with the scramble for profit, and an unregulated environment for VoIP. "The Internet is a lawless frontier where nothing is safe and secure and reliability is always one step away from calamity," he says. "As things stand today, VoIP does little to protect the interests of the aforementioned entities, not to mention protecting the security of the United States. We are suffering untold numbers of hacker attacks DAILY, with systems broken into and identities stolen. Not too long ago the entire worldwide DNS system (Domain Name System) was brought to its knees by hackers," he said. In his opinion, if the technology continues to develop in its current direction, no one will be able to guarantee that communications cannot be intercepted and monitored. In addition, if we examine our current circumstances, a lot of the excitement generating the rush to VoIP is based upon an illusion, the appearance that we are being offered new and sophisticated technologies. In fact, existing VoIP offerings are simply discounted POTS services, he says, with no value-added features, only lower cost caused by fierce price pressure from cable TV and other low-overhead vendors. The result is the continued downward spiral on price that has plagued the telecommunications industry for 30 years. IronPipe(TM) is a re-thinking of 21st century telecommunications architecture, which will return a sense of safety to our society as a whole, reinvigorating our economy from the inside out. If his vision is implemented, Mr. Emerson says we won't have to put up with either the fear of intrusion, or the huge financial burden of protecting ourselves from the ever-increasing army of those with malicious intent. According to him, we now have a choice.
The challenge is that VoIP companies such as Skype, Vonage and the various Cable carriers which have migrated to the Internet did so not only to provide cheaper communications, but to avoid regulatory scrutiny. "If you don't have to deal with the regulations it tends to make things cheaper," he said. "But these profits come at a price." "The integrity of the communications system has been compromised because of short term thinking primarily geared towards reducing costs." In its simplest terms, IronPipe will enable us to make web 2.0 Internet-style media rich calls utilizing the existing private, protected, secure, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and its unseen private data network - known as SS7, which connects all the main switches around the world. While VoIP uses the Internet exclusively and thus can be, and regularly is, compromised, if we establish Internet calls through these telephone company switches there will be no access from the outside. We can create rich media visual telephone calls on broadband Internet connections, using wireline or wireless touch-screen phones such as the iPhone, simply by dialing a phone number, and still enjoy the privacy, security and reliability of traditional telephone calls. In short, Mr. Emerson says that his technology seamlessly merges the best of the Internet with the best of the telephone network. Considering the cost to government, industry and society at large to protect against intrusion and to remediate the damage caused by intrusion, IronPipe could be well worth looking into.
About Harry Emerson - Emerson Development LLC:
Harry Emerson is an expert in computers, voice and data communications, and the Internet. His career history includes 25 years in various sales, management, and strategic capacities at AT&T and the design and management of large-scale, multi-million dollar enterprise applications and data systems including the consolidation of 40 data networks into a single corporate-wide network, and an application for 5,000 sales representatives to access 120 million customer records. He has numerous patents issued and pending against a variety of technologies including FM radio, Internet streaming, PC software, and telecommunications. His background in switching systems and data networking, along with concepts he developed in corporate architecture and strategy positions, ultimately led to the development of a patent portfolio that defines the next generation of telecommunications, featuring secure, rich MultiMedia capabilities. Mr. Emerson co-founded GEODE Electronics to commercialize a series of patented enhancements to commercial FM radio. Subsequently, Mr. Emerson co-founded SurferNETWORK, an Internet streaming media business. He is a member of the NJTC Telecommunications/Media Industry Network Advisory board and the founder of Emerson Development LLC and the Inventor of the IronPipe system to create a secure Internet.
Jacqueline Herships is a publicist, journalist and communications strategist working to build public understanding of key environmental and security issues of the time.
