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Should IETF do more to fight computer crime?

2000-05-21 11:00:02
Should IETF do anything to fight the increasing incidences
of net criminality? Can we do anything? Can the protocols,
which IETF manages, be modified so as to make it easier
to fight virus distribution, mail bombing, ping attacks
and the other ways in which people are harassing the
Internet?

Or would such changes to the Internet protocols mean
more invasion of privacy, in a way which is even less
acceptable than letting the criminals continue? It seems
that there is a strong group in IETF which likes the
freedom of the net and believes that changes to stop
criminal usage would also remove this freedom? Is this
true, or can we fight net criminaltiy without risking
the freedom of the net?

Crime prevention outside the net      Crime prevention in the net
--------------------------------      ---------------------------

Surveillance, video cameras,          Is it possible to allow surveillance on
wiretapping, bugging                  the net in such ways, that it will not be
                                      misused? IETF did apparently not think
                                      so, when this was discussed at the IETF
                                      meeting in December 1999, where a very
                                      large majority voted against any kind of
                                      help from IETF in this area.

Making crime difficult by locks       We have rather little locks, and what we
walls and crime-safe houses.          have is not used very much. Why?

video cameras, black boxes and other  Is this also not acceptable? Could we log
tools to investigate "after the fact" what happens on the net in ways which
what happended.                       makes it possible to track the criminals,
                                      without risking misuse which threatens
                                      the freedom of the net?

Laws, detectives, prosecution,        Are also applied to net criminals, if
penalties                             they are caught.

Controlling access to dangerous       This method is probably not useful
tools and weapons, like explosives,   against computer terrorism. Computers,
etc.                                  like hammers, are the same whether
                                      used for good or bad acts.

Police on the streets.                Do we have police on the nets? Do we
                                      accept them? Help them?

International police cooperation.     This is essential, computer criminals
                                      often run their crimes over national
                                      borders to make them more difficult to
                                      find and prosecute.

Harmonized laws across countries.     Can te laws, as they apply to computers,
                                      be internationally harmonized in ways
                                      which makes it less easy for criminals to
                                      find safe harbours in countries which do
                                      not have the necessary laws?

-- 
Jacob Palme <jpalme(_at_)dsv(_dot_)su(_dot_)se> (Stockholm University and KTH)
for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/jpalme/