Fergie's Tech Blog

ISPs 'Should be Responsible' for Hacker Attacks

Paul Marks writes on NewScientistTech:

Internet service providers (ISPs) should be made legally liable for the damage caused by "denial of service" (DoS) attacks carried out via their networks, a leading internet lawyer says.

A DoS attack involves taking down a website or sever by flooding it with meaningless traffic, usually sent from a network of tens of thousands of PCs infected with viruses and controlled remotely. These viral "bots" do nothing until a hacker sends a command that tells them to attack a target, but can also be used to relay millions of spam email messages.

At a conference called "Blocking Denial of Service Attacks on the Internet", to be held in London on 13 September [I think perhaps this is a misprint and is actually Novermber? - ferg], Lilian Edwards, an internet lawyer based at the University of Southampton, UK, will argue that legal measures must be taken if these attacks are to be stemmed. Edwards notes that ISPs currently have no legal obligation to check data relayed to and from internet users. She thinks, however, that governments could require them to do so.

Ian Brown of the Communication Research Network, an internet policy group based in Cambridge, UK, will chair the conference. The event will be held at the UK government's Department of Trade and Industry. "There will be a range of people present from government, industry, ISPs and companies that want to protect their online presence," he says.

posted by Fergie @ 11/09/2006 11:03:00 AM