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14 reasons why the filter is a bad idea |
Security risk is increasedThere are two ways in which the filter increases security risk. Filtering secure trafficThe filter may attempt to examine a secure web session (when the padlock icon is shown, such as internet banking). Some filter vendors claim that they can do this. If that's true then major uses of the internet will disappear. Would you buy online, bank online or trade shares online if you thought your secret information was being intercepted? Of course it could be that those vendors are, err, exaggerating and that they can't do this at all. However in that case this exposes yet one more way in which the filter won't work. If your web browser is not correctly set up (or you ignore warnings issued by the web browser), it is possible to do what the vendors claim. So in that sense security risk definitely is increased. The filter itself under attackThe filter box itself makes a very attractive target. The filter is a box through which everything you send or receive on the internet goes. What if it had a security weakness that someone could exploit? No software is perfect and experience suggests that the more complex the software is, the more likely it is to have such weaknesses. If someone took control of that box then they could bring down an entire ISP. They could fish through all insecure web sessions (and maybe secure web sessions too) looking for passwords etc. They could invade your privacy by picking through your email and any other file sent over the network. If all Australian ISPs use the same filter vendor, either by choice or by government diktat, then cyber-terrorists or a foreign government could bring down the entire internet in Australia. |