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Asshat35
join:2002-11-14
Fitchburg, MA
| Help, Help, I'm being repressed.
It's a tough issue. As a power user I don't want my ISP restricting my ports/access in/out to the world. I do think that they COULD help the "mom & pop" users by offering an enhanced security mode. Wherein the ISP would lock down everything coming in (no diff than typical firewall). Mom and Pop are NOT gamers, file traders, etc... It leaves us alone to fend for ourselves and implement personal security and keeps those less knowledgeable out of trouble.
My problem with that thought is that once you give someone (isp in this case) an entry point towards restricting content (port blocking) they might start doing it for everyone w/o notice and possibly w/o anyway to opt out of that.
Just some random thoughts. | |
hhawkman
Premium
join:2001-02-08
Port Hueneme, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| said by Asshat35  :
It's a tough issue. As a power user I don't want my ISP restricting my ports/access in/out to the world. -snip-
My problem with that thought is that once you give someone (isp in this case) an entry point towards restricting content (port blocking) they might start doing it for everyone w/o notice and possibly w/o anyway to opt out of that.
I agree to a point, but where does responsabilty start and end? This worm is the perfect example of the ISP's knowing about a problem that would probably affect 99% of their users, yet in most cases, sitting on that information. The advisory came out 3-4 weeks ago to the ISP's. How many ISP's forwarded that warning to their customers as early as 2 weeks ago?, 1 week ago?, Yesterday?
Most ISP's that may have instituted blocking the port did so because their users were getting infected. This is "closing the barn door after the horse escapes".
You can whine and moan about people not being able to access the internet without some sort of intellegence test. and say "it's their own fault". Maybe it is to a point, but maybe if the ISP's gave some advance warning to them (not everyone who owns a computer follows technical discussions), then maybe this worm flood would have been over before it started. Or at least been easily controllable.
If ISP's that do blocking, blocked incoming port 135 early last week, no one would have noticed (unless you are running an Exchange Server, which is against most TOS's), and the worm wouldn't have spread into their networks. | |
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