The Internet’s sharks are not only still in the ocean, they’re getting a lot closer to shore. According to Thursday’s Washington Post:

Approximately 5.5 million malicious software programs were unleashed on the Web last year, according to AV Test Labs, a German company that measures how quickly and accurately anti-virus products detect the latest malicious software…. That volume, AV said, forced anti-virus firms to analyze between 15,000 and 20,000 new specimens each day — more than four times the daily average they found in 2006, and at least 15 times as many the company recorded in 2005. In the first two months of 2008 alone, AV Test found more than one million samples of malware spreading online.

“Back in 1990 we were seeing a handful of new viruses each week,” said David Perry, global director of education for Trend Micro, an anti-virus company headquartered in Japan. “Now, we’re having to analyze between 2,000 and 3,000 new viruses per hour.”

Much of this is coming from organized gangs outside the U.S. stealing passwords, credit card numbers and other financial information from unsuspecting Net users.

And speaking of illegal behavior, Paul Sweeting at ContentAgenda reports that FCC Jonathan Adelstein said this week that Net Neutrality would not cover illegal behavior online, including copyright infringement and illegal P2P sharing.

So here’s the latest version of the question that Net Neutrality advocates refuse to face: With Net Neutrality pushing a “dumb network” regulatory structure over the web, just how are network engineers supposed to keep up with exploding challenges from viruses, malware, and other illegal behavior?

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.