Report on Canberra Consumer Consultation Meeting, 22 April 2004
The meeting was held at the Computer Science and Information Technology building, Australian National University, Canberra at 5.30 pm on Thursday 22 April 2004, and we would like to thank a number of local groups for their assistance, including ACT-PCUG, ACS, CLUG, ATUG, CASE and the ANU Computer Science Department.
Participants were advised that this consultation process is supported by funding from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.
Usage of the Internet
The participants' discussion covered the pros and cons of Internet usage generally, with a focus on some recent Internet consumer fraud activities based upon vulnerabilities in widely used commercial software. Benefits of open standard software are discussed, with suggestions on comparison testing of operating systems. Spam and viruses are still a major problem. Censorship, copyright and intellectual property issues are seen as being poorly handled.- The Internet is a form of telecommunications, involves new techniques. The Internet is a hot issue in International Telecommunications Union processes involving settlement between carriers.
- The Internet is important as a transport system - without doubt it is the coming platform, with next generation networks as the carrier-focused view of the world.
- Users are agnostic about the technology and just want the capabilities.
- Some potential hazards from people who wish to dominate the Internet from commercial perspective, but also objections to commercial uses can be a problem.
- Malware is a problem, eg spam and fraud.
- Still a fantastic collaboration system - collaboration is becoming more effective, has moved on from a situation that the more programmers the more the project is delayed, but the Internet has undermined this concept.
- Collaboration raises the question of copyright and is threatening incomes, but how do we work out how to not lock down the situation too tightly?
- The Internet is used every day for personal and business matters, particularly for access to research.
- Spam is the greatest annoyance, also the amount of unwanted porn that just pops up.
- System administrator for ISP: doing research on `phishing' - spam that tries to fool people into giving out their banking details - most phishing exercises are coming from Russia from well organised gangs.
- They are now moving to Trojans, focused on Internet Explorer software, using one of the thousand or so bugs in the code.
- Software looks for IE windows with titles, eg a bank window, all information typed to the window is stored and emailed to gangs.
- Users should transfer information securely, maybe avoid IE if possible.
- Avoiding deception relies on user understanding - see http:/www.codephish.info for information on these frauds.
- The Internet is continuing to provide major benefit, but speaker was concerned about ISPs being forced to censor material - parents should be responsible for their kids' content.
- New IE service pack will include popup locking - mail filtering can handle popup issues and ISPs are working to counter spam.
- The Internet is now a vast library of information, with the capacity to buy many items, but there are still too many broken systems that don't follow RFC based standards - eg mail transfer agents, which if compliant would reduce the amount of spam.
- Lazy system and network administrators are a problem when they do not keep systems up to secure standards.
- Porn and paedophiles are family and social issues, not technology issues.
- Increasing commercialisation is difficult because companies will avoid standards, so education of professionals is critical - some graduates only learn commercial products rather than standards.
- Strengths of the Internet are acknowledged, but sensible DSL prices and products are still needed.
- Net nasties are causing concern, with significant increases in the last twelve months.
- IPv6 - when will it come? What is needed to prepare for it? Will IPv6 involve encryption by default?
- There is too much USA domination, including legal heavy-handedness.
- PCUG (PC Users' Group) Internet subcommittee - international organisation with 99% of communication on the Internet - cheap simple fast communication.
- But disadvantages are viruses etc - must learn from the medical profession, telling the user to stop is useless, look to quarantine the source of infection - ie solve the technical dimension.
- Some users are finding it too difficult and giving up, but some improvement is happening - can we put a bounty on malicious acts? There is potential for more effective action by law enforcement agencies.
- PCUG has presented discussions on preventing computer nasties.
- But casting our minds back we are forgetting how young the Internet is, there are now incredibly valuable facilities. It is analogous to the introduction of the car - at first sometimes dangerous, but now many dangers have been brought under control.
- Look to a combination of factors - funding for good Internet social education and good engineering.
- But digital divide issue is a concern, also concern about Telstra and competition.
- Copyright issue is a problem because it creates a monopoly for a certain time, large corporations are buying extensions for perpetual control.
- There is a significant difference between online application of copyright and paper application, constraints of software use licences are overly restrictive and accept no liability for doing harm.
- Internet is a `road system' replacing the road system for information.
- Need to think globally on that issue, Linux has built software worldwide under millions of eyes and has been established as a secure system. Can we do the same thing in relation to SPAM or viruses? eg We could abandon auto execution of email attachments, but would the cost of preventing viruses damage the shareholder value of Microsoft?
- Whole consulting businesses are now being run over the Internet.
- Academics are busy inventing new Internet capacity and devices, eg grid access, without attention to the social aspects.
- The issues need a combined approach - could use the motoring organisation model, as in crash testing of cars - `crash testing' of operating systems. Could say `do not usE this operating system out of the box' - would mainly apply to software and perhaps ISPs.
- When will ministers been seen to understand? Confusion surrounds technology - the Internet is just a pipe, the issues we are facing are the creations of people at the ends of the network.
- ISPs are taking more responsibility in providing clean pipes to businesses, so this may filter down to average users.
- There is excessive censorship - legal threats to ordinary users from censorship laws.
- There is insufficient support from government for open standards and source software - could contribute 15% of advertising budget perhaps.
- Government shows lack of understanding of unintended consequences of legislation - is continuing to follow USA IP laws that could do substantial damage to us through high price of user software, also allow the lack of software product liability.
Tony Hill
President ISOC-AU
22 April 2004