ISP forced to take action on viruses
Published: 18 Mar 2004 14:55 GMT
Whose fault is it, anyway?
Still, the question remains whether the techniques broadband ISPs are implementing are enough. Some say the onus is on ISPs, which should play a role in protecting their networks for the greater good of their subscribers and the Internet at large. Critics say ISPs should manage their networks to ensure that all users are safe.
"I wouldn't expect to boil my own water; I expect it to treated upstream," said Mark Sunner, the chief technology officer at MessageLabs, which sells a virus-detection service for corporate networks. "The correct groundswell needs to be focused on the Internet level, where you can be proactive rather than reactive."
ISPs point out that excessive monitoring could have damaging consequences for their business. To stop viruses from spreading, they could take the extreme measure of scanning their subscriber inboxes and PC hard drives to make sure that users are not unknowingly harbouring malicious viruses. However, ISPs fear that taking this tack would jeopardise user privacy.
"It would be very unfriendly to scan customers' machines," said Mary Youngblood, the manager of the abuse team at ISP EarthLink. "It would be deemed by some people as a privacy violation."
America Online, the nation's largest dial-up ISP, has dealt with virus and spam issues for many years and has used different methods to battle the problem. AOL frequently suspends accounts that may have been infected and forces subscribers to call customer service to fix the problem. It also restricts the amount of outgoing mail each member can send, among other techniques.
"It should not be our responsibility, but AOL has been a good Netizen," said Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman. "It's a joint responsibility between providers and consumers."
Where the balance of that responsibility falls will continue to shift, as new variants of viruses continue to emerge and wreak havoc. Right now, it seems that virus writers have easily exploited a loophole substantial enough to keep everyone pointing fingers.
"You can't expect [ISPs] to take on the task of keeping everyone virus-free, because if they did that, their costs would skyrocket," Lurhq's Stewart said. "It really falls on each individual user to be responsible. But unfortunately, people aren't up to the task, technically."
CNET News.com's Robert Lemos contributed to this report.
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