Assigning Liability for Malicious Internet Traffic

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Introduction

The inability to determine liability for malicious traffic transiting the internet is a difficult, but not impossible and failure to act is not acceptable. Without the ability to assign liability, the environment of continually shifting responsibility will continue to foster lackluster security practices by all parties on the internet and create undesirable economic costs. To address this issue, it is necessary to assess the parts of the problem including the costs of malicious traffic, the actors on the internet, and issues around assigning liability. Following establishment of the factors is a recommendation for assigning liability.

Scoping the Problem

The concept of assigning liability is not new to the world, but the internet presents unique challenges. These challenges stem from a number of factors that play on each other without necessary consideration for the overall effects that occur in a common environment, like the internet (Mead, 2004). While liability on the internet needs addressed for a number of reasons, this paper will only be considering the case of malicious traffic. The justification for problem identification is the economic impact of the current environment. The various actors on the internet—end users, operating system (O/S) manufacturers, software vendors, and internet service providers (ISP)—as well as examples of malicious traffic—trojan horses and botnets. Then, the discussion turns to identified issues related to assigning responsibility such as legal, externalities, and privacy (Kuwahara, 2007).

Malicious Traffic is Costly

The economic cost of malicious traffic is significant enough on its own to justify efforts to assign liability. These economic impacts appear externall...

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...mplementation planning and are generally familiar to all parties except end users.

ISPs shall be responsible for providing a compliant infrastructure and ensuring end user compliance prior to connection along with pre-defined assistance when an incident occurs—this is similar to the current role ISPs play in Digital Rights Management enforcement (National Acadamy of Sciences, 2010). O/S and software vendors are required to conform to the baseline to avoid liability, which they already do to have the US Government as a customer. End users see the most significant change in that they must complete web-based training (created by the Government) and carry cyber insurance for potential negligence. The ISP is a likely provider of this insurance and the premium part of the account charges and the rates negotiated by the ISP based upon the level of compliance enacted.

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