[AusNOG] DDOS mitigation

[Matt Palmer]

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 03:11:31PM +0000, Dobbins, Roland wrote:
> On May 12, 2013, at 4:35 PM, Matt Palmer wrote:
> > It's a nice idea to be sure, but a provider with a bunch of compromised
> > wordpress instances is unlikely to be impacted sufficiently to need to
> > claim on their insurance scheme.
> 
> The point is that they'll need to periodically perform scanning and
> present a clean bill of health in order to a) obtain and b) retain their
> various required levels/types of business insurance, nothing to do with
> claims related to compromised WordPress sites.

I'm not particularly familiar with how insurance actuarial calculations
work, but I'd assume that what factors into the calculations and T&Cs most
is actual causes of claims -- so if nobody's claiming because of cracked WP
sites, it would be very, very low on the list of things to worry about.

There's also the problem that anything that smells of "automated scanning"
just ends up turning into a money pit for charlatans.  PCI compliance
auditing, I'm looking at you.

> Although when the first few successful lawsuits roll in based upon the
> doctrine of attractive nuisance, those payouts may well become a factor,
> as well.

Lawsuits are how any impact will be felt.  Despite my reservations about
giving lawyers any meaning to their existence, sadly I think this is about
the only way the problem will get cleaned up.  No need to go talking to the
insurance companies directly, either -- as soon as they get the slightest
whiff that "dirty network == lawsuit", the T&Cs on insurance policies will
change in a mighty big hurry.

- Matt

-- 
My favourite was some time ago, and involved a female customer thanking "Mr.
Daemon" for his effort trying to deliver her mail, and offering him a "good
time" if he ever visited Sydney.
		-- Matt McLeod