It's been a while since I've posted anything, I've been annoyingly busy. Someday it'll slow down ... right?
So the first story that caught my eye today was this:
Security Report Finds Enterprise Infections Up 100 Percent
It's the normal story about how enterprises are full of viruses and worms and all sorts of other bad things. I suspect the real story here is that enterprises are looking for and finding malware rather than ignoring it (or not finding it).
The really interesting story of the day is this one though:
Tech Futurist Sees Rosy Prospects for Net Security
It's a story about how in the future all the ISPs and sites we visit will be stomping on malware for the good of all humanity. This probably will never happen unless there are drastic changes to our telecommunications laws. Right now data carriers are generally not liable for the data that travels over their network. This basically means that the ISP isn't responsible for what the two parties using you for transport do. If ISPs decide they need to start stopping malware, there are two potential problems. Who defines what malware is, and what happens if they miss some.
I'll explain this a little better. The first being the definition of malware.
Let's say I write a new operating system called door, and it's all the rage. My competitor decides they REALLY need to get rid of me, so they convince a bunch of ISPs (where convince is a giant bag of money) that I'm malware. Unless you have a huge army of lawyers on your side, there's probably little that can be done to resolve this situation.
The other possibility is what happens when the ISP doesn't block something new.
Perhaps I go to a legitimate web site and suddenly this new worm has infected my corporate network, causing a loss of millions in downtime. Right now, you could maybe go after the site hosting the malware, but probably not the ISP. If your ISP is claiming they can stop malware and they don't, they could potentially be sued by customers. Obviously they don't want this.
It's a slippery slope, but also a problem where they're hoping to fix the network rather than the endpoints. I'm not sure which would be easier.
