Leader News

ISPs should provide a service, not just Internet

Leader ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 01 Feb 2006 17:10 GMT

They might be unfashionable, but they haven't gone away. While phishing and zombies and other horrors have stolen the headlines, old-style viruses are still out there. Now, the Nyxem virus has infected hundreds of thousands of PCs, and on 3 February it will start deleting crucial data.

There are patches and antivirus updates, of course, but there'll still be many at risk. So it's good news that Easynet is taking steps to warn customers it thinks may have been infected. The company is simply watching out for characteristic Web traffic caused by the virus, and if you're an Easynet customer and your PC is the source you'll be emailed a warning with a suggested fix.

But while Easynet should be praised, it's disappointing that other ISPs haven't followed its lead. As infrastructure providers, they're responsible for keeping the edge of the Net going — and in the best position to stop infections before they really get started

ISPs protest that it costs too much to go looking for problems, such as alerting customers who have been sucked into a botnet. But Easynet has shown that saving customers from malware doesn't cost millions. It takes brains and the will to do it, and these can be fruitfully shared.

Regulators, service providers and users all have responsibilities towards keeping the Internet clean. ISPs are in the best position to monitor threats from malware and other criminal attacks on the infrastructure, and should work together to make the most of what is really an opportunity.

Not only will this make their customers happier, it will safeguard against further unpleasantness. At a time when the European Commission is attempting to slip tighter regulation for online content onto the statute book, ISPs need to prove that they have a strong argument that self-regulation can work. Otherwise, refusing a reasonable role in Net policing will land them with unreasonable — perhaps fatal — obligations to police content. And that would be a virus that would never go away.