ISPs dumping 'raw sewage' on Net users

 

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By Maggie Holland,

Posted on 12 Oct 2006 at 15:38

So says Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at filtering specialist Message Labs, who believes that although users need to be security-savvy, ISPs must also step up their game.

'They're currently pumping out the equivalent of raw sewage and saying: "You sort it out,"' he said during a panel debate on security at an internet stakeholder event held hosted by Nominet this week.

The company says that, of the 1.5 billion emails it handles each week, one in every 170 messages now contains phishing or ID theft attempts of some description.

Sunner added: 'I do think quite strongly that ISPs also need to do a lot more. You wouldn't expect that it's your responsibility to boil your own water at home or that it's your responsibility to deal with the new strain of botulism that's out.

'Yet, in IT terms, that's exactly what's going on. Some of these early protocols that were designed decades ago are fundamentally missing some of the security and more could be done at the Internet layer before gets anywhere near end users.'

But ISPs were keen to defend their position.

'It is very difficult to look for technology solutions to what are essentially social problems,' said a member of the audience who also works as a consultant for Demon.

'Con men have been around for decades, conning people out of money by looking plausible and using the technology of the day. The internet is far more complicated than supplying water. It's like supplying water, gas and electricity at the same time.'

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) says that it is doing its best to educate consumers to ensure they also take responsibility for protecting themselves.

A recent ICO survey found that more than 80 per cent of people aren't confident that internet companies look after their data. But the ICO believes that if it had asked that same sample if they take any security measures themselves, they would probably suggest they feel it isn't their responsibility.

'We are increasingly living in a society where people are more prepared and willing to hand over bits of information that if you went up to them in the street for, they would run a mile,' said Dave Evans, a ssenior guidance and promotion manager at the ICO.

'A lot of focus is on the public sector collection of information and I think we often forget the information we give to private sector organisations because we want that television, because we want that fridge, because we're trying to get the holiday tickets or whatever.

'Part of what we're trying to do in the ICO is reduce that sloppiness and get people to be more careful about how much information they give away.'