CERT Advisory IE bug shows monoculture requires new Internet business risk strategies

The recent recommendation by CERT that users stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is a recognition that the monoculture problem goes beyond patching," said John S. Quarterman, CEO of InternetPerils, Inc.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) July 2, 2004 -- "The recent recommendation by CERT that users stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is a recognition that the monoculture problem goes beyond patching," said John S. Quarterman, CEO of InternetPerils, Inc. "Just as we saw with the recent Akamai outage, any technical solution can fail; what do you do then? Simply put, the Internet clearly needs new business risk management strategies."

According to Quarterman*, Users and system administrators should try to install the latest patches, and users should be wary of clicking on unsolicited URLs, but there are limits to what users can be expected to do. This IE problem appears to have no patch yet, and the CERT advisory comes pretty close to saying it's not just a bug; it's a design flaw. This is not surprising for a product from a company that grew up in the hothouse of non-networked PCs, and is still trying to adapt to the more complex jungle of the Internet.

"An infested IE can turn its host computer into a staging ground for attacks on other machines throughout the Internet, causing both direct harm and collateral damage from increased traffic and from inaccessibility of damaged computers. Even such a dangerous bug wouldn't be as much of a problem if it occurred in a web browser with a minority market share. But IE covers the Internet like kudzu, and thus threatens its habitat.

"It appears that CERT has determined it is time to weed this particular hot-house plant before the locusts of the Internet grow fat on it and multiply to infest other parts of the jungle. It is good to see recognition of the problem and some technical action. But what if companies lose business because of this or some other technical failure? What then?

"One answer is insurance: Internet business connectivity insurance. Other new (to the Internet) risk management strategies include catastrophe bonds and performance bonds, and reputation systems such as peril and anomaly reporting going beyond even what CERT does."

InternetPerils provides automated products for Internet Business Risk Management. For more information, contact InternetPerils http://www.internetperils.com/

technology computer internet microsoft network internetwork internet explorer web browser browser security web

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