Internet Marks 40th Birthday

A computer expert said Thursday marks the 40th birthday of the Internet heralded by two computers at California schools connecting for the first time.

Leonard Kleinrock told CNN he was a professor of computer science at the University of California-Los Angeles on Oct. 29, 1969, when the school's host computer was connected to a counterpart at Stanford University's Stanford Research Institute.

"I basically supervised the creation of the Internet at the first node, both in the first connection and the very first message," Kleinrock, 75, said.

"When the host computers talked to each other, I like to say the Internet uttered its first words on that day," he added.

Kleinrock said 40 years later, the Internet has become both a source of information and features as well as a source of potential dangers.

"One of the problems of the Internet is that we didn't install what I like to call strong user authentication or strong file authentication," he told CNN, referring to the growth of computer attacks, identity theft and fraud. "We didn't anticipate the level of the dark side we see today. The culture of the early Internet was one of trust of all the users."

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.