Posted: 27th Apr, 2005 By: MarkJ
Experts from both Spamhaus and Counterpane have used this years '
Infosecurity Europe 2005' conference to lash out at ISP's for failing to protect customers against the Internet's many security threats:
Bruce Schneier, chief technical officer at Counterpane, maintained that ISPs should be the gatekeepers for security and be able to offer safe internet access, even if it comes at a price.
"I expect clean water from my water supplier," he told vnunet.com. "Why can't I get the same level of service from my ISP? They could solve a lot of common security problems but don't seem to want to."
Others have pointed out that ISPs are missing a significant business opportunity in not offering such services. Although specific applications, such as banking, have successfully charged customers for better security, no ISPs have tried such schemes.The
VNUNet items final paragraph is slightly misleading given that several UK ISP's do charge for additional security features.
In additional many would argue that placing a specific cost on such services can have its own negative effects, not least on the provider itself (SPAM bogging down the network etc.). What goes around, comes around.