Re: NATs as firewalls and the NEA

[Douglas Otis <dotis at mail-abuse.org>]

On Mar 6, 2007, at 1:39 PM, Jeff Young wrote:

> For better or worse, the "centralized means of control" you mention  
> may well come in the form of the latest IPTV networks being built  
> by large telco providers.  As telco battles cable for couch  
> potatoes, they've realized that mucking with television reception  
> is perhaps the best way to overload their customer service call  
> centers.  As such, the demarc between ISP* and customer is moving  
> inside the home.  There may still be a Linksys or Netgear wirless  
> device attached to these networks but there will be an IP "router"  
> that is partially controlled by the ISP on site.
>
> Depending on your stomach for getting involved there will be,  
> according to predictions, ~40 million households worldwide on some  
> type of IPTV in the next few years alone.  We may not have the  
> opportunity to replace existing hardware, but there is the  
> opportunity to influence what goes in-line before it.

The "centralized" controls should be able to modulate connectivity.   
It seems almost every day represents a new zero day exploit of some  
sort.  In light of this, it would be helpful for connectivity to be  
limited until there is some automated acknowledgment that signals  
specifically what connectivity is required for remediation.  While it  
is possible to centrally identify threats, there is no uniform means  
to modulate connectivity during identified vulnerable transitions.

During these transitions, clicking on a link or accepting a message  
represents a genuine threat.  As it is now, compromised systems lack  
any centralized control and have placed the Internet dependability  
and related commerce at risk.  Some mechanism similar to that of the  
NEA seems needed.

-Doug


_______________________________________________
Ietf mailing list
Ietf at ietf.org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf