Posted: 14th Aug, 2003 By: MarkJ
South Korea has joined a growing number of countries backing the new 'simpler Internet electronic numbering system' (Enum). The goal being to use one identifier for many different purposes, including mobile phones, email, instant messaging and faxes:
Theoretically, online users can access a person's contact information, including their email address, simply by typing in the person's phone number in the Internet address field of the Web browser.
According to the Korea Herald, the country's Ministry of Information and Communication planned to commercialise Enum technology earlier this year, but was delayed due to technology problems. This project is part of the ministry's efforts to catch up with the global trend of telecommunication and Web infrastructure convergence.
When Enum domains become active, users will be identified by their telephone number including the country code. What that means is a phone number such as +46-8-9761234 would be mapped to the 4.3.2.1.6.7.9.8.6.4.e164.arpa Internet address in a process that is expected to become automated and transparent to the user.While it may be an interesting idea, what of the obvious security concerns? Having a StaticIP can be bad enough, yet surely the above method could represent a field day for hackers around the globe? More @
ZDNet.