Probe Research has a very lucid take on this very topic at
http://www.proberesearch.com/alerts/networksecurity.htm
Their point is that, given the current climate, the RBOCs are likely to be setting the agenda for cyber security. To quote Probe's first two conclusions:
"First, the RBOCs will be the focus of developing a telecom national security plan;
Second, the RBOCs will use this position to force costs onto all players. For example, co-location will be viewed as increasing the risk to telecom, so carriers may be forced to abandon co-location in favor of smaller nodes and these nodes will have to have remote backup nodes."
Cheers,
Mathew
It has taken me more than an hour to recover from reading that depressing Probe Research alert.
OK I have a question. Can't the ISPs gather here regard this as an invitation to leave the PSTN? If this goes down as suggested it seems to me that if they don't leave the PSTN in SOME fashion they will be strangled by the big telco players in the Soviet style, homeland security, central planning bureaucracy.
Will these regs apply to common carriers? But not to information service providers? Is the FCC direction on broadband therefore a good thing for ISPs?
Should every ISP that wants to remain independent go wireless and look for a fiber connection to an inter exchange carrier network? As if these ISPs don't avoid the LECs already? What is the feasibility of separating an IP internet from the LEC networks? Is Cogent our friend? or anyone else who buys up IP assets at fire sale prices? Can the Bush Men really be against redundant networks?