Just like water

It is often said that the outsourcing of services is an increasing trend among companies, but if we stop to think for a moment, it is actually something that has been going on for a long time, albeit under another name.

Office cleaning, electrical maintenance or the supply of drinking water, for example, have almost always been contracted out to other companies, as they require specialised personnel and in many cases, such as the supply of water, they are services that a company can simply not provide for itself.

So, what do we demand from the company supplying water? We expect that the water is drinkable, the supply is continuous and that there is adequate water pressure. But what is asked of an ISP? We expect it to provide broadband connection without interruptions in the service.

Interestingly, there are similarities between the services offered by water companies and those provided by ISPs: Just as we expect our ISP to have good servers, we expect the water company to have adequate water tanks and just as we can ask our ISP to host our Web pages, we can ask our water company to provide water coolers for fresh drinking water.

It`s all remarkably similar, except for one important difference: While the water companies are required to provide potable water, the ISPs are not subject to the equivalent demands. There is no concern for the quality of content arriving through our communication lines; as long as IP packets arrive at the right speed and communication does not fail, we are seemingly happy.

Internet service providers have a huge responsibility with respect to the content of the information that they provide to their clients.

Jeremy Matthews, involved in the IT industry for over 20 years

Meanwhile, among the kilobytes or megabytes of information that reach our servers there are large quantities of malware, spam or fraudulent e-mails, but as long as they keep arriving, we`re happy. Yet the minute our water has the slightest tinge of brown, or smells a bit too much of chlorine, we are on to the water company straightaway. And even though there may be no real health risk, we want our water to arrive in perfect conditions.

Who has ever asked an ISP to clean Internet traffic of malware? No one would argue that the Internet doesn`t have risks, and users are generally aware that when they connect to the Internet and receive e-mail they could be receiving a variety of malware, spam, fraudulent messages... But why should all this reach internal mail servers?

Internet service providers have a huge responsibility with respect to the content of the information that they provide to their clients. The water companies have certain commitments (tacit and contractual) and ensure that the water supply meets certain standards. Clients would not accept an inadequately filtered water supply in their companies, so why accept e-mail saturated with adverts for strange pills to boost one`s sexual appetite?

The solution is simple. If an ISP offers some type of clean mail service, take it up on the offer. But don`t ask it to indiscriminately delete attachments simply `because they are dangerous`. Messages should be analysed conscientiously, and not just in search of the typical dangers of viruses, but also any form of malicious code which should be detected even if it is unknown.

Once you have contracted this service, you will notice a new sense of calm about the internal mail server, and network users will see how their e-mail is clean, and free from threats or risks. You will then be able to open e-mail with the same peace of mind that you have when drinking a glass of water.