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The recent attacks by Anonymous and LulzSec have promoted much discussion the IT security world and there has been much finger pointing and these organisations. But these attacks would not be possible if all members of the Internet community took precautions to prevent misuse of there systems by others.
Nobody wants to see the Internet regulated and for the "privileged few" only. But we at Emiic believe all Internet users need to remain responsible for their actions.
If you are negligent and leave your SMTP (mail) server vulnerable to the internet (the largest burden in terms of cost to the industry, ahead of Windows zombies) and it's used to damage or deny company or municipal services, then there should be consequences. Just like if you were negligent with your motor vehicle in terms of what you do with it and how you maintain it, and someone gets hurt because of it, there would be consequences. This is part of the society we live in. If you've taken reasonable steps to maintain your corner of cyberspace (updates, non-essential services closed etc.) and bad stuff still happens then that's unavoidable. You shouldn't be held responsible.
The same works on the other side though. If an electricity supplier is negligent with its IT services (poorly configured firewall, unnecessary services connected to the web) and they get taken down then they should be ready to dish out some compensation. The big questions then become; what is negligent and what is reasonable? These are no small questions but there are many resources and organisations to help make that assessment. In the coming years we will see much discussion in this field and defining decisions made by our courts and law makers.
It is through mutual responsibility that we can mitigate threat to data and information systems. We at Emiic call on individuals, organisations and governments to work to a system of mutual responsibility of actions and consequences on the Internet. If you would like to know more about how you can protect yourself and others when operating in a connected world, please talk to us, or use the resources on this site to assess your vulnerability.
