North American Network Operators Group

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Re: Schneier: ISPs should bear security burden

  • From: Steve Sobol
  • Date: Wed Apr 27 15:04:46 2005

Owen DeLong <[email protected]> wrote:

> Why do ISPs owe this to their customers. 

They don't. (I would argue that they owe it to the rest of the Internet, but
that argument is tangential to this discussion.)

However, I'd like to add an additional data point:

Those of us in .us have undoubtedly seen the AOL commercials touting their
comprehensive anti-virus services. (Don't know if they do other malware, FWIW)

The services are offered to AOL members at no cost to them.

Anyone who thinks AOL is doing this out of the goodness of their hearts,
please speak up now...


[FX: sound of crickets chirping]


Yup. That's what I thought. 

Not having to support people who have tons of viruses saves money, and
therefore is a good idea. Making it easier for people to avoid infection is
good business, especially when you are talking about AOL's userbase (in terms
of sheer numbers and the Internet expertise of the stereotypical AOL member).

It's not up to the online service or ISP to force security updates on their
customers. It might be a good idea for them to at least *offer* said updates,
though. How many do, besides AOL? 

And I'd argue that Owen's attitude is appropriate for transit and
business-class connections[0] - but if you're talking about a consumer ISP,
that's different. If the Big Four[1] US cable companies followed AOL's lead,
we'd see a huge drop in malware incidents and zombies.

**SJS

[0] Always appropriate for transit. Generally appropriate for business-class
bandwidth services, although you will still run into a lot of clueless
business owners who might end up with the same problems as residential
customers.

[1] Soon to be Big Three, but currently Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, and
Adelphia.

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Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

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