ASP security and dispute resolution guidelines released

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO60694,00.html

By TODD R. WEISS 
May 18, 2001 

New global procedures for improved security and efficient dispute
resolution for application service providers (ASPs) were announced
today to help solidify the future of the emerging industry.

After a year's work, the Wakefield, Mass.-based ASP Industry
Consortium (ASPIC) and the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) today released final recommendations and guidelines that will
be used by WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center to resolve disputes
between ASPs and their customers on a worldwide basis.

WIPO is a Geneva-based United Nations agency specializing in
intellectual property matters. In addition to its work with the ASP
consortium, WIPO is one of the four organizations that resolves
domain-name disputes under deals with the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers.

Jim O'Reilly, an ASPIC spokesman, said the new rules and procedures
are needed because ASP vendors and their customers can be located in
different countries, making fair dispute resolution procedures much
more difficult because of differing laws and customs.

A key to the guidelines will be the dispute avoidance recommendations
that are built into them, he said. Those recommendations are aimed at
helping to keep problems from escalating into full-blown disputes.

Traver Gruen-Kennedy, chairman of ASPIC, said in a statement that
"cyberspace has no borders, yet the world still operates under a
system of cultural and historic borders, meaning a process is required
to address business disputes that may occur in a cross-border
relationship."

Meredith Whalen, an analyst at market-research firm IDC in Framingham,
Mass., said the guidelines target "some of the challenges that the
[ASP] market has," including concerns from users about the security of
their data when their applications are hosted by an outside company.

"ASPs have been trying to instill confidence in their customers,"
Whalen said. The new guidelines could help make users "more confident
about buying the service" and in turn lead to increased growth in the
ASP industry, she added.

The global dispute avoidance and resolution guidelines are available
on the Web sites of both groups, which announced the project a year
ago. An early version of the rules and guidelines was released in
November.




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