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ISP Restrictions Based on Hardware/Software?
An anonymous reader writes "IT Architect magazine is reporting that ISPs are working towards a greater restriction of a customer's right to run what may be 'insecure' software. From the article: 'A greater threat is that ISPs may try to restrict the customer's side by denying access to machines based on their hardware or software configuration. [...] former head of cybersecurity, White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke even said it should be made mandatory to quarantine malware.' Something that may also come as a surprise to some is that Microsoft is completely against this censorship of internet access. 'According to Chief Privacy Officer Peter Cullen, Microsoft is against ISPs doing anything that would restrict customers' choice of software. And he says this isn't just about the impracticability of demanding that data centers patch everything on the second Tuesday of the month. Laptop and home users also have the right to run an insecure PC.'"
Check the FA. The fools want people to run client-side software to verify that all your software and hardware are on the approved list. ("Gee, does your client run on PC/104 ARM9 hardware?")
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
verizon wireless is already doing this over their unlimited broadband 500kbps wireless data plan for 60 bucks a month restricts the user from ANY large upload or downloads. here, this quoted from verizon's website.
PROPER USES:
"Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess:
Subject to VZAccess Acceptable Use Policy, available on www.verizonwireless.com. NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess data sessions may be used with wireless devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force and field service automation).
SUCH USE DESCRIBED BELOW WOULD BE SUBJECT TO TERMINATION OF SERVICE CONTRACT
Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess services cannot be used (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games, (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, Voice over IP (VoIP), automated machine-to-machine connections, or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, or (3) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections."
The ISP's first responsibility is IP egress filtering. The ISP must validate the outgoing source IP address of each packet. This at least prevents the most annoying types of denial of service attacks. Most competent ISPs do this now, although some of the cable guys are weak in this area.
The ISP's second responsibility is outgoing mail rate limiting. That's enough to slow down zombie-based spam. If the outgoing mail rate exceeds some reasonable threshold, the user should get a phone call, even if the phone call is automatically generated.
The ISP's third responsibility is incoming mail spam filtering. This should include virus filtering.
Incidentally, ISPs which block outgoing TCP ports should return an ICMP message (type Destination Unreachable, code Communication Administratively Prohibited). At least then you know what's going on, and who's doing the filtering.