salahx
join:2001-12-03
Saint Louis, MO | Your ISP cannot be a babysitter As nice as theses ideas sounds, its simply not going to happen mostly for one reason: Cost. ISP's operate on razor-thin margins already and there is cutthroat competition (as computer OEM like Dell, Gateway, HP, etc). Helpdesk are "money sinks" for ISP, if ISP called up every user infested with the virus of the month week day, even with outsourced foreign labor, it would probably negate any profits - unless, of course, they raised the price. Then, of course, there will be endless posts about the evil Bell/Cable conspiracy/monopoly trying to squeeze out of their customers, yada yada yada.
"Jailing" the users by restricting ports, etc, will just drive up call queues (and thus costs) and irritate more advanced users. Start blocking ports, and suddenly they can't use their companies e-mail server, Kazaa stops working, etc. Quite a few businesspeople decide the easiest to give remote access is simply to expose their entire network to the Internet (without using a VPN). Cut them off, and start bitching about lost profits, business, and will simply move to another provider with laxer security.
Forcing all e-mail though an handful or servers (you ISP's) is a bad idea. Soon the government will pass a new "antispam" law saying all e-mail must me routed through server. PGP users may soon find themselves in Guantanamo Bay.
E-mail might work. Apparently, my machine was infected and my ISP sent me a nice password-protected zip file to remove it. How thoughful....
As to holding the user responsible, it simply can't be done. In general, the end user doesn't know any better. They don't WANT to learn. I suspect they CAN'T learn (brain cells start dying around age 20. It appears the ones that control technical-savvy die first). It's more than ignorance - I know, I'm a helpdesk tech, I can explain something to someone 10 times, and have them repeat it 10 times, and they still will not have learned. And sadly, this is fairly typical! Educating the user is out of the question - you'll have better luck training elephants to fly.
Unfortunately its one of those "good, cheap, fast: Pick any two" problems. More responsive abuse desks would require hate hike, and, of course, ISP with non-responsive (or nonexistent!) abuse desk could offer lower prices. The choice of the masses would be clear. Unless you legislate it - but given the stuff coming out of Congress lately, any result law would probably be even more intrusive than USA PATRIOT and suck up to special interests more than the DMCA.
There no magic bullet that'll solve the problem - unless, of course, its a .45 directly through the head of the predators of the ignorant of the Internet (spammers, scammers, "spyware" deployers, semi-legit businesses that prey on ignornace like the "mp3" sites that only tell you how to download Kazaa and those coupon guys, black hats, DDoS zombie leaders, virus deployers, and so forth). Legislation is unlikely, for our government is so concerned with "the economy" that it won't take steps to stop even scummy (and downright illegal, at times) business in fear of a lost job or 2. And even if they did legislate, it would either be as (in)effective as [You] CAN-SPAM act, or give Government/**AA an open door to strip you of all freedom and possessions. |
