Making Your ISP responsible for the SPAM

Last week I attended a small presentation by Bruce Schneier at our Minneapolis OWASP chapter meeting. Honestly, I didn't know much about Bruce before. But once he started his talk I was amazed by his depth of vision in computer security. The topic was "The Economics of Information Security - Ten Trends".

Here is one of the interesting portions of his presentation. How to make your home computer safe from spammer and malicious code? As a techi you might know when to allow cookies, what not to download etc ; but what about your mom ? Hmm… Bruce has a nice suggestion. Let's make your ISP (Internet Service Provide like Comcast, Qwest etc) responsible for all the damage caused by spam and malicious code. If the law will be passed, they will start putting effective security at their gateway. To support this idea, he made a wonderful analogy with the credit card industries. Credit Card Companies have to reimburse you for all the fraud occurred to your account. This law was passed long time back. That is why your credit card companies and banks have added tons of security feature and check points to your accounts. Just imagine the trouble you and me will face if the law would not have existed. Wonderful idea; is not it ?

You can find Bruce Schneier blog at www.schneier.com/blog/