1% Of Internet Traffic Being Fiddled With By ISPsPage re-writing software may introduce security threats...
09:12AM Monday Apr 21 2008 by Karl Bodetags: business · security · contentTipped by fatness 
A new
report (pdf) by researchers at the University of Washington states that roughly one percent of web pages delivered to users
are being manipulated in some way by ISPs. After studying some 50,000 computers, the researchers found that a select few ISPs were injecting ads into Web pages on their networks. The study found that the most frequent culprits are small ISPs like Texas's Redmoon, who used NebuAD technology to
inject ads over existing ad relationships (NebuAD's CEO tells us they've since stopped the practice). From the research:
These changes often have negative consequences for publishers and users: agents may inject or remove ads, spread exploits, or introduce bugs into working pages. Worse, page rewriting software may introduce vulnerabilities into otherwise safe web sites, showing that such software must be carefully scrutinized to ensure the benefits outweigh the risks. Overall, page modifications can present a significant threat to publishers and users when pages are transferred over HTTP.
The researchers have subsequently developed a
web page tripwire system to detect ISP manipulation of web content they say is "more flexible and less costly" than switching to HTTPS for all traffic.
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Most "fiddling" is by end users & NOT the ISPs
