Re: The problem?
"Unless they're servers for entire regions or even companies, meaning nowhere to defect. "
That kind of defection is accompanied by a P45 or a monopolies investigation.
Back in the days when open mail relays were a major problem, getting japanese admins to fix their boxes was quite hard, with most either claiming they were required to keep the things open, were fully standards compliant or simply blocked complaints from people who'd been hit, making open japanese relays an seemingly intractable problem...
...Until some bright sparks in Tokyo hit on the idea of notifying japanese media about the problems and the TV channels delighted in naming and shaming companies which were assisting hackers/spammers by not securing their computer networks(*) - which wasn't so much loss of face as being publicly kicked in the ballsack as far as management was concerned. As a result it usually took less than a day from the time that reporters started asking questions to the time that the servers either went offline permanently or were fixed.
(*) The public had been sensitised to the problem due to massive spam campaigns targetting mobiles.
Management facing adverse publicity and/or investigations in western countries has about the same reaction. Embarrassment is a fantastic teacher/persuader when dealing with refuseniks (either the management who refuse to let changes be made or the admins who refuse to do it)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
