Appendix A

  Before reading the appendix, I had the misconception that today’s Internet was born as a university project. However, while my general knowledge wasn’t completely inaccurate, there were key historical facts that I was unaware of. I was shocked when I learned that the Internet was actually a project assigned to the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (formerly ARPA) by the U.S Department of Defense. But my surprise didn’t come because of the ruling change itself. What made me speechless was thinking that U.S confidential military information was on today's Internet.

  After devouring Appendix A, my adrenaline spike from immediately jumping into the wrong conclusions, was lowering. I learned that in 1984, the Department of Defense split the ARPANET (the original packet-switching network) into two specialized networks, the ARPANET and the MILNET (Military Network). The MILNET would be reserved for military uses that require greater security (Thank Goodness). The U.S Department of Defense realizes that the Internet (back then about 7 major connected networks) was becoming much more than a scientific research project. That is why in 1995 the U.S Department of Defense finally closed the research portion of its network, the ARPANET. This process, the privatization of the Internet, and the technological advance known as the World Wide Web, gave birth to today’s Internet.