If you thought Y2K was bad, wait until cyber-security hits

Fri Jul 19 03:04:27 UTC 2002

It has taken me more than an hour to recover from reading that 
depressing Probe Research alert.

OK I  have a question.  Can't the ISPs gather here regard this as an 
invitation to leave the PSTN?  If this goes down as suggested it 
seems to me that if they don't leave the PSTN in SOME fashion they 
will be strangled by the big telco players in the Soviet style, 
homeland security, central planning bureaucracy.

Will these regs apply to common carriers?  But not to information 
service providers?  Is the FCC direction on broadband therefore a 
good thing for ISPs?

Should every  ISP that wants to remain independent go wireless and 
look for a fiber connection to an inter exchange carrier network?  As 
if these ISPs don't avoid the LECs already?  What is the feasibility 
of separating  an IP internet from the LEC networks?  Is Cogent our 
friend?  or anyone else who buys up IP assets at fire sale prices? 
Can the Bush Men really be against redundant networks?

>Probe Research has a very lucid take on this very topic at
>
>http://www.proberesearch.com/alerts/networksecurity.htm
>
>Their point is that, given the current climate, the RBOCs are likely 
>to be setting the agenda for cyber security. To quote Probe's first 
>two conclusions:
>
>"First, the RBOCs will be the focus of developing a telecom national 
>security plan;
>
>Second, the RBOCs will use this position to force costs onto all 
>players. For example, co-location will be viewed as increasing the 
>risk to telecom, so carriers may be forced to abandon co-location in 
>favor of smaller nodes and these nodes will have to have remote 
>backup nodes."
>
>Cheers,
>
>Mathew
>

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