By Sally Watson, 15 February 2001 15:30
NEWS Checking email subject lines for malicious code is standard for many ISPs, but according to Steve Rawlinson, chief technical officer at Claranet, it may unintentionally break the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act. Claranet's filtering was intended to protect the ISP's 450,000 UK users from the destructive bug. But the company was left wondering whether it might land itself in court under the controversial new regulation. "The Act says interception is illegal except under certain circumstances," said Rawlinson. "We're calling for clarification of those circumstances." Last month UUNet ran into similar problems after it filtered more than two million emails for unwanted spam messages. At the time, the ISP said it was unaware it could be breaking the law. The Bill enshrines the conditions under which a third party can interfere with private communications data. The crucial part states it is a criminal offence to intercept communications "intentionally or without lawful authority" during transmission. Roland Perry, CEO of internet exchange LINX, claimed there is no danger of ISPs ending up in court for filtering spam or viruses if they have permission from their customers or are doing it to ensure the integrity of operations. But he admitted there is a lot of confusion amongst service providers. "It's still early days," he said. "But we're very keen businesses should be able to carry out their normal processes." LINX is planning to produce official guidance on the RIP Act to help service providers implement the new legislation.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below