[102425] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: IBM report reviews Internet crime
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andre Gironda)
Wed Feb 13 17:54:59 2008
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:54:01 -0700
From: "Andre Gironda" <andre@operations.net>
Reply-To: andre@operations.net
To: nanog@nanog.org
Cc: "JC Dill" <lists05@equinephotoart.com>
In-Reply-To: <47B36F0F.90407@equinephotoart.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Feb 13, 2008 3:28 PM, JC Dill <lists05@equinephotoart.com> wrote:
JC,
Nice conjecture.
> I'm really surprised that ISPs haven't banded together to sue Microsoft
> for negligently selling and distributing an insecure OS that is an
> Attractive Nuisance - causing the ISPs (who don't own the OS infected
> computers) harm from the network traffic the infected OSs send, and
> causing them untold support dollars to handle the problem.
I'm really surprised, too. However, it's more complicated than that.
Read the book, "Geekonomics" for more information on this topic.
> If every big ISP joined a class action lawsuit to force Microsoft to pay
> up for the time ISPs spend fixing viruses on Windows computer, Microsoft
> would get a LOT more proactive about solving this problem directly. The
> consumers have no redress against MS because of the EULA, but this
> doesn't extend to other computer owners (e.g. ISPs) who didn't agree to
> the EULA on the infected machine but who are impacted by the infection.
Hence the "Trustworthy Computing Initiative" which was started by Bill
Gates / Craig Mundie in 2002 -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trustworthy_Computing
Only now we're too late - Bill has a parachute.
Cheers,
Andre
