0
Authorities consider hacker alert system
Posted by
Marine59
,
in
Government
17 October 2010
·
31 views
government
Lolita Baldor
Associated Press
WASHINGTON The government is reviewing an Australian program that will allow Internet service providers to tell customers if hackers take over their computers and could limit online access if people don't fix the problem.
Obama administration officials have met with industry leaders and experts to find ways to increase online safety while trying to balance securing the Internet and guarding people's privacy and civil liberties.
Experts and U.S. officials are interested in parts of the plan, set to go into effect in Australia in December. But any move toward Internet regulation or monitoring by the U.S. government or industry could trigger fierce public opposition.
White House cybercoordinator Howard Schmidt said the U.S. is looking at voluntary ways to help the people and small businesses better protect themselves online.
Possibilities include provisions in the Australia plan that enable customers to get warnings from their Internet providers if their computers get taken over by hackers through botnets – networks of infected computers that can number in the thousands.
ISP Role
“Without security you have no privacy. And many of us that care deeply about our privacy look to make sure our systems are secure,” Schmidt said. Internet service providers can help “make sure our systems are cleaned up if they're infected and keep them clean.”
But officials are stopping short of advocating an option in the Australian plan that allows Internet providers to wall off or limit online use by customers who fail to clean their infected computers, saying this would be technically difficult and likely run into opposition.
“The United States is probably going to be well behind other nations in stepping into a lot of these new areas,” said Prescott Winter, former chief technology officer for the National Security Agency who is now at cybersecurity company ArcSight.
“I think that, quite frankly, there will be other governments who will finally say, at least for their parts of the Internet, as the Australians have apparently done, we think we can do better,” he added.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON The government is reviewing an Australian program that will allow Internet service providers to tell customers if hackers take over their computers and could limit online access if people don't fix the problem.
Obama administration officials have met with industry leaders and experts to find ways to increase online safety while trying to balance securing the Internet and guarding people's privacy and civil liberties.
Experts and U.S. officials are interested in parts of the plan, set to go into effect in Australia in December. But any move toward Internet regulation or monitoring by the U.S. government or industry could trigger fierce public opposition.
White House cybercoordinator Howard Schmidt said the U.S. is looking at voluntary ways to help the people and small businesses better protect themselves online.
Possibilities include provisions in the Australia plan that enable customers to get warnings from their Internet providers if their computers get taken over by hackers through botnets – networks of infected computers that can number in the thousands.
ISP Role
“Without security you have no privacy. And many of us that care deeply about our privacy look to make sure our systems are secure,” Schmidt said. Internet service providers can help “make sure our systems are cleaned up if they're infected and keep them clean.”
But officials are stopping short of advocating an option in the Australian plan that allows Internet providers to wall off or limit online use by customers who fail to clean their infected computers, saying this would be technically difficult and likely run into opposition.
“The United States is probably going to be well behind other nations in stepping into a lot of these new areas,” said Prescott Winter, former chief technology officer for the National Security Agency who is now at cybersecurity company ArcSight.
“I think that, quite frankly, there will be other governments who will finally say, at least for their parts of the Internet, as the Australians have apparently done, we think we can do better,” he added.
