mitigating botnet C&Cs has become useless

Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr. LarrySheldon at cox.net
Sun Aug 13 17:35:17 UTC 2006


Danny McPherson wrote:

> On Aug 13, 2006, at 8:35 AM, Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr. wrote:
> 
>> Danny McPherson wrote:
>> 
>>> As importantly, broadband SPs are trying to move to triple (quad)
>>>  play services, how tolerant do you think your average subscriber
>>> is to losing cable television services because their kid
>>> downloaded some malware?
>> 
>> At least one of us would applaud an effort to hold people
>> accountable for what they and their kids do.
> 
> Oops, I see how you could spin it that way...  Let me spin it back..
> 
> What if the malware your kid's PC (or better yet, your PC) was just 
> infected with came through a virus received in email for which no fix
>  was currently available and the resident AV solution was unaware?

Sorry you weren't able to get the spin you wanted, but I still think 
that if people want to use email readers that execute the messages 
instead of displaying them in plain text without seizure inducing 
jiggles, without root kits, without all the rest of the malware spectrum 
they ought to be held accountable for that action.

Their choice, let them pay for it.

> Now you can't watch the game tonight, or your favorite show, or use 
> skype to chat with your daughter in Europe, or check your email, [or 
> call 911?] all because the malware triggered something on the network
>  side that resulted in you being "walled gardened"?

If it is my house, it won't happen twice, I betcha.

And if you want to sell a service that allows misbehaviour without 
penalty to your misbehaving customers, more power to you.

But don't make _ME_ pay for it.

> My position here is aligned with Sean's and Arjan's.  IF you were
> able to offer any such "walled-garden" services it's not simply a
> binary  thing, there's a large array of variables that need to be
> accounted for technically - entirely independent of the economic ones
> surrounding services that are hardly profitable already.
> 
> I believe there exists a significant opportunity here for such value-
> adds for broadband and other services alike, but it's at least
> initially going to be a rather complicated one.

This morning's Omaha Weird Harold has a front-page item about the City 
installing free wiffy hotspots around town.  It may be time for you to 
reconsider the options on the buggy-whip plant.
-- 
Requiescas in pace o email

Ex turpi causa non oritur actio

http://members.cox.net/larrysheldon/





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