The Akamai service interruption of Tuesday 15 June, that affected Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft shows risks of doing business over the Internet cannot be ignored or eliminated, claims John S. Quarterman, CEO of InternetPerils, Inc. InternetPerils is the industry’s leading provider of Internet risk management products for insurers, financial institutions, banks, telecommunications providers, government, and enterprises that need to effectively manage their Internet business risks.

Businesses currently use technical solutions for Internet risks including worms, viruses, cable cuts, and routing flaps. Firewalls, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, and, in this case, content distribution, are good and useful. Yet none of them alone and not even all of them together can handle every circumstance.

“You can put all your cargo in a convoy on the stormy seas of the Internet, but what do you do if the convoy sinks?” asks Quarterman. When businesses face risks of fire or hurricane or flood, they install sprinkler systems, put up storm windows, and establish evacuation paths, explains Quarterman. “They also buy insurance. Businesses that use the Internet need to deal with risks beyond their control through new risk management strategies, starting with Internet business continuity insurance.”

“Such policies may be hard to find today,” said Peter F. Cassidy, Director, InternetPerils. “But so was sea voyage insurance in the 17th century at the beginning of the great age of seafaring. It is time for businesses to demand insurance for faring on the global sea of the Internet.”

We’ve got the coffee shops, but where is Loyds of the Bay?