Re: The home user problem returns

[Mason Schmitt <mason () schmitt ca>]

Marcus J. Ranum wrote:
> ISPs have a completely different place in the security stack - your
> job is to carry goodness and badness;

I agree that the ISP's place in the security stack is different than
that of businesses and government.  However, I don't think our job is to
carry badness.  As a major choke point between thousands (in our case)
or millions (the big ones) of home users and the rest of the net, I
think ISPs absolutely should be doing whatever possible to restrict
badness on their networks.  They have the visibility necessary to do the
job and they have the means to at least offer some basic protection.

The fact that ISPs are now seeing enough pressure (from customers, RBLs,
and worm/bot load on their networks) that they are starting to react, is
encouraging.  Comcast, once the worlds greatest source of spam is now
working toward a full outbound port 25 block and has just made
available, to all of their customers, a McAfee software bundle that has
an antivirus app and personal firewall.

I don't think it's a great solution (probably marketing driven), but
certainly far better than what they had before.

 as you point out, your end
> users (who are idiots) will resent your attempts to make things
> better for them.

I see my job as trying to provide as consistent and unencumbered an
experience as possible for our customers.  Right now, spam, bots, and
#!$%ing spyware are getting in my way of doing that.  I don't like the
fact that at the onset of each new worm, that I still have to contact
people and shut them down.  I don't like the fact that customers phone
complaining that our service is slow and when they bring their computer
into our shop we find a massive spyware infestation (the current record
btw is 5300).  As a result, we are willing to try anything that is
likely to gain us some ground.  Right now one of the projects that we
have that is working really well is having customers bring in their
computer when they sign up.  We give the PC a thorough enema and send it
back out with free antivirus and antispyware, windows updates turned on
and the XP firewall enabled.  Twice a year we run a spring cleanup and a
fall tune-up which again goes through the enema process for $29.  We're
fairly confident that this program is making a big dent in the number of
really vulnerable systems out there.

Our goal is to severely reduce the number of infections on our network
so that our customers can have a consistent and hassle free experience
on the net.  I'd like to see all ISPs adopt that stance.

Sorry.  Just realised this looks a whole lot like a sales pitch...

--
Mason



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