UK government must protect people from malware

computerworlduk.com

5 points·Netadmin··4 comments

Politicians talking about technology are beyond parody.

This is a thoroughly depressing article.

Really? The botnet testing site idea does not seem clueless --- it would require ISP co-operation and they urge ISP co-operation. There are privacy implications of such a service, true, but this is the stuff of politics.

ISPs surely already have information about some of their infected customers.

If it's acceptable for an ISP to mess with DNS and provide an ad-laden search page (Virgin Media) or to redirect to a "Fair Use limit reached on your unlimited account" page (T Mobile) it must be okay to redirect people spewing spam or malware to a list of clean-up instructions and anti-malware sites.

The other problem I have is that removing malware from a machine isn't usually easy. While people on HN may enjoy tinkering around seeing where the hooks are the best (quickest, surest, cheapest) method is to wipe and re-install. People visiting a "are you infected" site are probably not keen to wipe and re-install, and are possibly just going to end up with worse infections as they search for anti-virus solutions.

I expect most people don't know how to wipe and reinstall. They may not even know it's possible. Information on what to do if your PC is infected would be useful to have on this website, no?

Some ISPs (e.g. BT I think) already redirect you if they think your system is infected. But permitting ISPs to redirect your web browsing is different from requiring ISPs to do so. We need a solution for customers of ISPs who take network neutrality seriously as well.

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