Searching for relief from the pressures of abundant capacity and intense competition for their core services, carriers such as WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp. are rushing headlong into the managed security services business. But the plans are drawing fire from security experts and customers, who say the carriers should look internally and secure their networks before offering external services. . . .
Searching for relief from the pressures of abundant capacity and intense competition for their core services, carriers such as WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp. are rushing headlong into the managed security services business. But the plans are drawing fire from security experts and customers, who say the carriers should look internally and secure their networks before offering external services.

Although for years many carriers have employed large staffs of security professionals, most providers still lack basic security safeguards such as DDoS (distributed-denial-of-service) protection on their data networks. Indeed, Telus Corp., a Canadian company, last week became the first North American carrier to install an anti-DDoS system.

Preventing and mitigating DDoS attacks is a challenge in that it requires cooperation among the victim, its ISP and, often, the attacker's ISP. But such cooperation is nearly impossible if providers aren't prepared for an attack.

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