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roger_grimes
Columnist

Reader’s Letter to my ‘Better Internet Threat Response Needed’ column

Analysis
Jan 29, 20062 mins
Data and Information SecuritySecurity

From: Tomas Vanhoof Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 8:18 PM To: roger_grimes@infoworld.com; letters@infoworld.com Subject: reaction on "To Congress: Better Internet threat response needed now" Hi Roger I am a bit saddened by your column of January 13th "To Congress: Better Internet threat response needed now". Don't get me wrong on the need for a better Internet threat response : the need is valid and should be

From: Tomas Vanhoof

Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 8:18 PM

To: roger_grimes@infoworld.com; letters@infoworld.com

Subject: reaction on “To Congress: Better Internet threat response needed now”

Hi Roger

I am a bit saddened by your column of January 13th “To Congress: Better Internet threat response needed now”.

Don’t get me wrong on the need for a better Internet threat response : the need is valid and should be addressed urgently!

But why should “Congress” (or in full “the Congress of the United States of America”) take care of legislation or regulation with regards to INTERNET threat response, where the internet spans the whole wide WORLD?!?!?

Shouldn’t an INTERNATIONAL attempt been made to address internet issues that affect the whole internet-connected world?!? Or do you only care about American internet users? All the others may get infected, they don’t need proper and timely warning, is that what you’re really thinking? This can’t be, I refuse to believe that, as I highly esteem your intelligence, skills, insight and thoughtfulness!

The only reasonable explanation I can think of would be that you wanted to be effective and use the means you have used before to reach the people you have reached before, fast and swiftly.

I hold on to that belief because otherwise your column would just be yet another example of the self-centeredness Americans are typecasted for.

It would be a good thing for the world as a whole if the USA had better Internet threat response than they have now, you could argue that, but you do know that’s not enough at all in these interconnected always-on times we are living. We need international efforts, institutionalised or grassroots, but definitely international, or just forget about effectiveness – SQLslammer didn’t stop at the US borders, did it?

Regards

Tomas Vanhoof

from Leuven, Belgium

roger_grimes
Columnist

Roger A. Grimes is a contributing editor. Roger holds more than 40 computer certifications and has authored ten books on computer security. He has been fighting malware and malicious hackers since 1987, beginning with disassembling early DOS viruses. He specializes in protecting host computers from hackers and malware, and consults to companies from the Fortune 100 to small businesses. A frequent industry speaker and educator, Roger currently works for KnowBe4 as the Data-Driven Defense Evangelist and is the author of Cryptography Apocalypse.

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