Viruses use bits, too
I just read a short post, titled “Dangerous Online Liaisons,” at Hands off the Internet. In it, the author makes an important, and funny, point that net neutrality advocates won’t address. The sentence highlighted below (emphasis mine) literally made me laugh-out-loud:
Second, this article illustrates yet again the need for packet management on the network. To be blunt, when DOS, spear phishing or polymorphic virus attacks are unleashed, a bit is definitely not a bit on the network – no matter how frequently or earnestly the net neutrality proponents make that argument.
Net neutrality advocates can talk all day about how “fair” to force ISPs to treat all bits “equally,” but what about the bits that we definitely want to stop? Is “discrimination” still bad if it is being used to blunt the effects of computer attacks? Not only will net neutrality prevent ISPs from managing their networks in a way that provide the best service for their customers, it will also prevent ISPs from taking steps that might help to prevent the effects of computer attacks.
Tags: [net neutrality]Comments
Leave a Reply