[AusNOG] NBN must avoid becoming 'failed state'

[Dobbins, Roland]

On Sep 20, 2010, at 4:04 PM, Mark Newton wrote:

> This is precisely the kind of hyperbole that fuels my cynicism.

I was merely pointing out that it's possible to posit all kinds of scenarios of that type, not just one.  I didn't start out talking about such extreme scenarios, and, like you, I don't think it's either necessary nor helpful to try and extrapolate them, when the reality is that the ordinary, everyday security situation on the Internet today is awful enough without the need to resort to exaggeration or hype.

> In the space of a couple of days we've gone from discussing malware and botnets to actual death-by-internet and disconnection of entire ISPs from potentially hundreds of thousands of law-abiding paying customers.

Again, there are all kinds of sanctions which can be posited which fall short of disconnection - financial penalties, fines, removing the ability to provision new users until compliance is verified, et. al.

But talk of sanctions is premature; the issue is whether or not NBNCo should set an AUP and standards for baseline security capabilities for NBN-connected network elements.

There are a lot of benefits which can result from NBNCo doing so, with very little (if any) downsides to doing so.  

AFAIK, there's yet to be one on-topic argument posited against doing so.

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Roland Dobbins <rdobbins at arbor.net> // <http://www.arbornetworks.com>

 	       Sell your computer and buy a guitar.