Schneier: ISPs should bear security burden

Thu Apr 28 22:17:12 UTC 2005

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, John Dupuy wrote:

> But this analogy breaks down on so many levels, so I recommend not using it. 
> The street system is a government controlled monopoly and...well lets not use 
> this analogy.

If you really want some analogy for Internet independent of the telecom 
sector or governent infrastructure, best is to compare internet & ISPs to
retail product distribution. In both cases you have produces (content or
manufactures) with many different kind of products and brands consumers 
want and complex distribution channels to get from the produces to the 
stores (ISPs) where end-users actually buy it. But in majority of retail
products, the origin product can not be contaminated or dangerous to
end-users, but if you compare groceries (a subset) then its a lot more 
interesting and product can easily get spoiled or otherwise be dangerous
and a lot more regulations exist to make sure what consumers get is good 
and supermarkets also routingly check themselve quality of products they 
receive (especially for produce and dairy).

-- 
William Leibzon
Elan Networks
william at elan.net