Internet founder Louis Pouzin adds his voice to the global concerns about internet security

As the world continues to panic about internet security, some of the founding fathers of the entire enterprise have gone public with their own misgivings about existing privacy measures. The latest to speak out is Louis Pouzin, the French engineer whose invention of the Cyclades computer network makes him one of five men, along with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and three American developers, who are credited with the creation of the internet.

Speaking to Le Monde, Pouzin reflected that, 'the internet was first conceived without security measures...the idea of it being used by crooks was marginal. We used to say, 'We'll deal with that later.' There never seemed to be any urgency.' Their discovery opened up so many astounding possibilities that it isn't hard to see why everyone got so carried away, but unfortunately, decades down the line from the original inventions, we're definitely feeling the effects of a lack of regulations.

Pouzin's comments about security echo those recently made by Sir Tim Berners-Lee when he and the other gentlemen received the Queen Elizabeth prize for engineering at Buckingham Palace last month (pictured). Berners-Lee famously broadcast the words, 'this is for everyone' at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony and stated at the time the fundamental principle of the internet as, 'an open thing, it wasn't something that could be controlled by any one government.'

He repeated this ethos when asked about the Edward Snowden claims surrounding internet surveillance: 'when you make something universal … it can be used for good things or nasty things … we just have to make sure it's not undercut by any large companies or governments trying to use it and get total control.'

Both men have remained active in campaigning to protect their creation from coming under the monopoly of one particular nation or corporation. Given the increasingly complex technology used by both 'good guys' and 'bad guys' alike, let's hope the founders of the internet still have what it takes to keep their invention on the idealistic track it started on.

If you have concerns about online security, one way you can use technology to help protect your privacy rather than expose it is through the use of a VPN service. A VPN acts as an additional defensive layer to help keep your connection secure while you use the internet.