The Internet marches on.

This week, Akamai announced a new IP acceleration service to optimize applications not accessed via a web browser. (Think Oracle.) The service works at the TCP/IP level using an end-to-end system involving Akamai routers installed outside a customer’s firewall. Granted, this is probably more important to enterprise users than ordinary net users, but as with most Internet developments, what starts as a business benefit quickly spreads once the technology becomes more affordable.

Proving that good things come in pairs, just prior to Akamai’s announcement, Level 3 announced that it was lowering prices for content delivery to approximately the market price for high-speed IP transport. That price drop all but eliminated Level 3’s premium for caching and downloading online content. The company also reaffirmed that a new streaming service will be ready by mid-November to compete against Akamai.

Three comments:

First, these announcements are timely reminders that that networks already have QoS standards that ease congestion and improve users’ experience. That may shock the sensibilities of the “all data is equal” crowd but the proof is in the results.

Second, prices are dropping and competing services are emerging – with government regulators are nowhere to be seen.

Third, given the spiraling complexity in the Net’s technology, we wonder if net neutrality partisans can still keep a straight face when they call federal oversight “a tailored, minimally-intrusive net neutrality requirement.”

Now this is timely news:

Operators who infected more than 15 million computers with destructive, intrusive spyware will give up $330,000 in ill-gotten gains from their venture to settle FTC charges that their scam violated federal law.
–Federal Trade Commission News Release, October 1, 2007

For those keeping track, October is “National Cyber Security Awareness Month” and anyone who wants some truly sobering news about the web should consider this:

• The global market for cyber crime, including botnets, phishing, spyware and other attacks, is $100+ billion – more than drug trafficking. (Source: Department of Homeland Security)
• From October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT) handled 37,006 incidents, compared with 23,993 the previous year. (Source: U.S.-CERT)
• According to a report released Tuesday by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center, online videos are the newest threat to your PC, as hackers use spyware embedded in streaming video to steal your information. (You can download the report in PDF here.)

All of this serves two functions. First it’s a reminder of the evolving threats to Net users. As the Georgia Tech report states, “[T]he battlefield will become increasingly anonymous and decentralized, making traditional security approaches less effective.”

Second, it shows the full-blown foolishness of net neutrality’s notion that the federal government should oversee Internet technology. With the constantly changing threats, consumers need the latest in end-to-end network protection. Period.

Net Neutrality threatens to seriously impede the adoption of more secure network technology. The result: Less security online. More regulatory expenses passed along to net users.