Comcast files "recommended practices" draft RFC with IETF for DNS Redirection

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Louis Mamakos <louie () transsys com>
Date: July 12, 2009 10:26:17 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Comcast files "recommended practices" draft RFC with  
IETF for DNS Redirection

A cursory reading of the document reveals that the "non-existent"  
problem posed is to redirect access to DNS names referenced by or  
hosting various forms of "malware."  Having just spent hours yet again  
delousing my father-in-law's Windows computer, I think I can say this  
is a real problem.  I've no opinion as to this being the real  
motivation or not of the ISP seeking to deploy such a capability.

As to the nature of the proposed solution, this surely is an invasive  
approach with impact that extends far beyond the WWW browsing  
application.

Another solution for ISPs and customers that would agree to such a  
thing is to have centralized ISP HTTP proxies.  (And no, not  
transparent ones, either.)  This would limit the impact to just the  
HTTP propagation vector, certainly at the expense of privacy.  Of  
course, that expectation of privacy is probably unfounded..  Such a  
proxy could be expanded to perform malware screening on the content  
and some customers might actually perceive value at such an offering.

Louis Mamakos





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