In an article in today's Wall Street Journal, Drew Fitzgerald [Level 3 Tries to Waylay Hackers ] we have the Internet's biggest problem shining through: as it becomes a more hostile place, few companies or governments find it in their interest to try to control any part of it. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and a host of others do not have this problem.
Level (3) Communications, Inc., the giant network company that operates in 60 countries, has decided to do something about hackers crossing its infrastructure. You would think that was a good thing. They shut down some suspicious traffic that was not part of their client base. They closed off some big service providers. Why would anyone not be grateful to them for what they are trying to do?
For the most part, it is because their competition in the network space is reluctant to become "policemen of the Internet". Who should that be? Should be get the FBI to do it in the name of International Crime? Should we get Google, Microsoft, and Amazon? How about letting China do it on contract? They seem to be good at it.
If the other carriers did what Level 3 is doing, the rest of the world wouldn't find it so easy to get into our networks and siphon off our credit and debit card information. They might find it more difficult to steal from our companies. They might have a harder time with phishing attacks. I would rather have service from someone trying to stop this kind of thing than service from a company that does nothing.
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