Why Security on the Internet is an Afterthought

This WaPo article gives us an historical perspective on why the Internet was designed to operate mostly with no encryption.  The money quote:

“Back in those days, the NSA still had the ability to visit a professor and say, ‘Do not publish that paper on cryptography.’ ”
As the ’70s wound down, [Vint] Cerf and [Robert] Kahn abandoned their efforts to bake cryptography into TCP/IP, bowing to what they considered insurmountable barriers.

This is really a great piece on how the internet morphed from an academic & defense research project to the collective nervous system of humanity.  I came into the field during the second decade of the Internet and it was not really a part of my life until about four or five years in.  I really enjoyed the insight into the earlier days.  Note the role Richard Stallman took back then - it hasn't really changed much, at its core.

h/t to Rob Slade via CISSPForum.