RSA Europe 2005 ISPs must be made liable for viruses and other bad network traffic, Bruce Schneier, security guru and founder and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security, told The Register yesterday.
Are local town councils responsible for crack dealers and crack users when that activity takes place within the bounds of the town? In some countries, the answer is yes. http://www.brent.gov.uk/www.nsf/0/19fbe6f14c0f0a8f80256ee600411b1c?OpenDocum... To summarize: Brent is one of the boroughs that forms the English city formerly known as Greater London. Like most town councils in the UK, they own housing developments that provide homes for those unable to afford their own place to live, i.e. welfare housing. Even though there was not enough evidence to convict the powerful drug dealers, the council was able to leverage the Anti-Social Behviour Act to eject the residents of a particular house/property. These ASBOs (AntiSocial Behaviour Orders) are also used in the UK to deal with noisy neighbours, unruly people on buses, football hooligans, people with habits of getting drunk and disorderly, abandoned cars, etc. Note that "The Register" is a UK publication. Also note that the substance of the above-quoted article is that various groups COOPERATED and WORKED TOGETHER to solve the problem. This included the police, the owners of the property, the users of neighbouring properties. I hope you see the parallels here. Mind you, it would help if some of the anti-abuse groups would band together under some umbrella organization that ISPs could join. Botnet researchers, SPAM fighters, etc. That way there could be some sort of good housekeeping seal of approval that ISPs can use to competitive advantage in the marketplace. At that point, money starts to talk and there is an economic incentive to clean up your act and get that "seal". --Michael Dillon