Q: What do ISPs really think about security issues?

Sat Jan 12 10:19:16 UTC 2008

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> All of it translates to
>
> 1. X more mailing lists to sign up to (lots and lots more email, great)
> 2. X more conferences to attend (more miles, yay, that's plat for this
> year taken care of)
> 3. A sizeable amount of reinvention of the wheel too
>
> Fun, isn't it?

We could just meet at the Universal Postal Union meeting, and get rid
of all those extra organizations like the ITU, IETF, NANOG, etc :-)

Although communication technology evolved to postal letters, to 
telegraphs, and now to the Internet most of the security problems (crimes, 
scams, abuse and so on) have been the same for centuries.

Is it easier to teach a technologist how to investigate, or to teach
an investigator about technology?

> That, by the way, is why I'm glad to see more and more organizations
> holding collocated / joint meetings .. across, to use some igov jargon
> (and for want of a better word) "stakeholder communities" .. banks
> talking to ISPs talking to LE / regulators talking to independent
> researchers etc.

Having both shared and separate meetings and communications is important.

We can all learn alot from sharing.  But its also important for 
organizations and people to be able to communicate just with similar
organizations and people.  There is an organizational dynamic that
happens. Enabling sharing within groups is as important as sharing
between groups, but they don't and usually aren't the same.

There have been several training classes and meetings I wished I could
have attended over the years, but they were closed to only people
in law enforcement, or in banking, or in a university.  While personally
frustrating, I understand why.