Hacker News Reader

Comment by kazagistar | Hacker News Reader

Wait, why can't you block spammers as fast as they are created? If your computer is compromised, it seems fine to disconnect it, or at least severely rate limit uploading until you fix the problem. Its the responsibility of the internet user to keep their computer in working order.

Really, if your computer is spamming someone, even if you aren't aware of it, you are harming them, and ignorance shouldn't be protection. Maybe fines and jail are a bit too severe, but rate limiting and possible disconnection are more then fair.

View on HN

So if Joe Shmo's router is compromised, then the ISP turns it off. How then is Joe supposed to learn that he's compromised by looking up symptoms, or download an antivirus to clean it up?

It's a pretty solution to the problem in theory, but when you actually apply it, it doesn't quite work out as well.

He calls the ISP and they tell him he is compromised. Or they robocall him.

My ISP actually did once cut me off when one of the machines on the network was compromised by malware. I called up their support line and they told me what had happened, I fixed it, and all was well.

Shameless plug: http://www.quarantainenet.com/

The ISP routes any HTTP request from you to a page that says "your computer has a virus, call your ISP support line to restore access". Of course, that in turn opens up the possibility of someone else taking over your modem and telling you to call this 900 number to fix the problem... :)

> Wait, why can't you block spammers as fast as they are created?

They can literally compromise new machines faster than you can identify existing compromised machines. It doesn't do anything to impose anything on the machine owner -- as soon as you identify the machine you can blacklist it, and as soon as you blacklist it they stop using that one.

The problem is in the time it takes you to identify a compromised machine, they can compromise many more additional machines.

So you work from home and your 12yr old discovers SET and sends a few phishing emails to their friends, so now the ISP cuts you off from the Internet. Now what?

You call them and get it turned on again. Also, shut off doesn't have to be right away, it could be after a few days of intense spam, and a week of upload constrained connectivity. In other words, you can find a sensible policy.

(1) There is no point in complete cutoff -- partial filtering should be enough. So if email spam is sent, outgoing SMTP port is blocked; if there is a virus spreading over random ports, all outgoing ports except http/https are blocked; if malware leaves spam on webpages, then all http/https connections are redirected to captive portal explaining how to fix.

(2) Same with spam blacklists, you get de-listed either automatically, if few weeks pass without incident, or faster by manual request.

(3) It should not matter why bad traffic was sent. A much more realistic situation is: "So you work from home and your computer gets trojan which starts to send phishing emails, so now the ISP cuts you off from the Internet. Now what?"

In either case the answer is: prove to humans @ ISP that you are no longer danger to the internet and ask them nicely to unblock you. If you work from home is that critical, have a separate internet source (say 3G modem which you activate with a phone call)

So you work from home and your 12yr old discovers loaded revolver in night closet and shoots few friends, so now the Police come and arrest you. Now what?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com