On ISPs Not Filtering Viruses

[Nelson Minar]

>Now, we wonder if there is more to the virus filtering issue
>than has been disclosed. Fore example, are ISPs covertly
>assisting the authorities by not filtering, perhaps under
>willing or unwilling non-disclosure agreements.

I think you're looking too hard for a conspiracy when simple
bureaucratic friction is a more likely answer. Deploying a new feature
and testing it at a major ISP is a whole lot of work. It's not clear
that it contributes to the company's bottom line, either. The cost is
clear (development and support), but the financial benefit is not.
It's a boring explanation, but it is likely.

I'm writing because I find it interesting that some folks here *like*
the idea of their ISP filtering content. I find that surprising! I
assume it's motivated by the huge problem of viruses, but wouldn't it
be better to fix the clients, not the pipes? There are a whole lot of
risks in a network layer suddenly doing application-layer things.


What kind of viruses are you talking about, John? Most people who talk
about filtering are thinking of email viruses. Lots of sites are
filtering viruses at their gateway mail server, but that seems like a
poor (if practical) solution to me. What we really need is email
clients that aren't so stupid.

                                                     nelson at monkey.org
.       .      .     .    .   .  . . http://www.media.mit.edu/~nelson/



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