[AusNOG] NBN must avoid becoming 'failed state'

[Mark Newton]

On 20/09/2010, at 6:46 PM, Dobbins, Roland wrote:

> 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.

Those who cause BadThings(tm) will have no contractual relationship 
with NBNCo, and subsequently no requirement to adhere to NBNCo rules.
The only entities NBNCo will be able to levy noncompliance sanctions
against will be entire ISPs.

So the relationship between NBNCo and ISPs will be a complicated one.

There are probably many models which could potentially be successful.

But I submit that the one you've proposed this evening isn't one of them.

Perhaps it's good to be thinking about these issues, and if that was
your goal then great, you earn a gold star.

Ponder for one moment the reaction that Verizon would get in the USA
if it started to levy penalties against its peers and customers for 
passing through third-party attacks.  Verizon, a private company,
imposing sanctions and threats of business-ceasing disconnection on
other ISPs.

Congress would go bezerk.  It'd be hilarious.

That's basically what you're suggesting here:  That NBNCo, a private
company that's supposed to be a monopoly service provider for the entire
country, could hold a threat of total business destruction over the 
heads of every ISP in the country if they don't meet some kind of 
nebulous standard of response against miscreants.  And because the 
threat models change all the time, the standards service providers would
need to meet would change all the time too.

So there goes my five-year plan.

In that kind of environment, if I was an ISP's security manager, 
responsible for assessing and managing business risks, I'd identify
NBNCo as my number one security threat.  NBNCo would be one of the 
few entities on the planet who'd be in a position to destroy my entire
business.  That makes them a bigger risk than natural disaster,
catastrophic fire, or the world's largest botnet.

  - mark


--
Mark Newton                               Email:  newton at internode.com.au (W)
Network Engineer                          Email:  newton at atdot.dotat.org  (H)
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