ACCAN has made a submission to the Internet Industry Association's review of its "icode". The icode is a voluntary code of practice for internet service providers (ISPs) to help address spam, malware, botnets, phishing, and other malicious activity on the internet.

The icode encourages ISPs to provide information to their customers on how to reduce the risks of being compromised by these types of activities. The icode also encourages ISPs to take steps to limit the damage that a compromised computer can cause, which can include placing restrictions on a customer's service or creating a "walled garden" to allow the customer to use essential services until their computer can be cleaned.

One of the most significant proposed changes to the icode is an extension to include mobile devices like smartphones and tablets in addition to home computers. This is an important change, since mobile devices are at increasing risk of being infected by malware.

Summary:

ACCAN made the following key recommendations:

  • that the icode should encourage ISPs to limit their actions to what is appropriate in the circumstances, given the level and type of threat of suspicious or malicious activity that they detect
  • that the icode should encourage ISPs to report statistics about any activity they detect both to their customers and to a central organisation
  • that the icode should discourage ISPs from selling equipment that is in a default, insecure state

Submission to: Internet Industry Association

Status: Submitted

Download: docxACCAN icode submission 798.58 KB

Download: pdfACCAN icode submission155.69 KB

icode website: http://www.icode.net.au/

icode Review Taskforce: http://iia.net.au/task-forces/icode-review-taskforce.html