Phorm - a sign of things to come?

[Splash]

A laudable but probably untenable position in the long term. If the big three (VM, Talk Talk and BT) get away with this, there's the danger that smaller outfits will get swallowed up sometime in the future as the juggernaut rolls on. Defections to these smaller ISP's is likely therefore to be of ephemeral benefit and could weaken the voice of rejection to the Phorm plans; but, ask yourself why Zen are rejecting Phorm.

Zen certainly aren't the only one, and I think they're in a pretty strong place in the market. Their service (I don't use them, but they do come highly recommended by a lot of people who's opinions I respect) is not trying to compete in the race to the bottom with the big 3 - they offer a premium service at a premium price, and I think there's enough market there (on top of all the business connectivity that they sell) to more than sustain an ISP in this day and age.

Zen and other premium ISPs don't *need* Phorm, and have taken the stance that I think most of us are arguing should be the case elsewhere in the industry too. The market will determine if I'm right, of course but I think Zen, Entanet and the other premium ISPs are safe for a long time yet.

[santa claus]

Zen certainly aren't the only one, and I think they're in a pretty strong place in the market. Their service (I don't use them, but they do come highly recommended by a lot of people who's opinions I respect) is not trying to compete in the race to the bottom with the big 3 - they offer a premium service at a premium price, and I think there's enough market there (on top of all the business connectivity that they sell) to more than sustain an ISP in this day and age.

Zen and other premium ISPs don't *need* Phorm, and have taken the stance that I think most of us are arguing should be the case elsewhere in the industry too. The market will determine if I'm right, of course but I think Zen, Entanet and the other premium ISPs are safe for a long time yet.

*Looks hopeful* My only worry is that business (whatever way you look at it) is about making money. If there's enough money flying around, there aren't too many people who can keep their hands off it. Once pockets start getting lined, the big money boys will be out to sweep up the titbits wherever they can.

Nope, if Phorm gets a foot in the door, it'll be in your living room browsing your kiddies pix on your pc, checking out your emails and harvesting your paswords before you can say father freakin' christmas.

I really don't care for the 'experts' who say Phorm is a secure solution. I just do not want it. Ever. Even if it comes with a phree inphlateable phemale phriend. It just sucks

[Phil_P]

F-Secure have written a blog entry today about Phorm here:

Phorm Factor - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab

Interestingly, F-Secure say because Phorm's technology is cookie-based, they are currently inclined to add a detection for it if it's used in it's currently proposed state. Other Anti-Virus vendors would probably do likewise.

Because the technology uses a cookie to identity each user, most antivirus vendors have the possibility of creating a signature and can wipe the tracks of monitored interests. Based on the descriptions of the deployment (opt-out) and the technology we lean towards creating such a detection signature for the cookie. The same stance has been given by many other security vendors and we all pull for a secure opt-in solution.