Australian ISPs To Disconnect Botnet "Zombies" 213
jibjibjib writes "Some of Australia's largest ISPs are preparing an industry code of conduct to identify and respond to users with botnet-infected computers. The Internet Industry Association, made up of over 200 ISPs and technology companies, is preparing the code in response to an ultimatum from the federal government.
ISPs will try to contact the user, slow down their connection, and ultimately terminate the connection if the user refuses to fix the problem. It is hoped that this will reduce the growth of botnets in Australia, which had the world's third-highest rate of new 'zombies' (behind the US and China)."
why not directly disconnect every Windows machine? (Score:4, Funny)
Not quite an accurate solution, but statistically close enough...
Re:why not directly disconnect every Windows machi (Score:4, Funny)
Give a discount to those running clean systems. (Score:3, Funny)
They don't need to disconnect bad users. They should just give a discount to users who are running secure operating systems that are more resilient to malware infections than Windows is.
For example, give OpenBSD users a 50% discount, since it's quite unlikely that their system will ever get infected or compromised. The same can probably be done for users using Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD and commercial UNIXes.
Linux and Mac OS X are more widely used than the aforementioned systems, so the chance of them getting compromised is greater, although still virtually non-existent. Give such users a 25% discount.
Assume that the latest version of Windows is somewhat immune. Give Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 users no discount. That is, they pay the base rate.
Assume that older versions of Windows have been compromised. Give them a negative discount. A Windows XP user pays an extra 25%. A Windows 9x user pays 50% more.
Nobody needs to get disconnected this way. Disconnecting people from the Internet over something they're not willingly doing is completely absurd, and in may ways should be considered criminal in the Western world.
Re:why not directly disconnect every Windows machi (Score:3, Funny)
Wait - you are supposed to LOG IN to a hotspot? Seriously? Maybe I've been doing it wrong. I usually just spoof a MAC address, and take over an existing connection. Sometimes, I just log into the router, and change the settings more to my liking. There are so MANY imaginative ways to use a hotspot - why log in? Spoofing a MAC address has the advantage of making my terrorist network activities appear to be dozens of different people. Why, just last week I sold a suitcase nuke to an Ethiopian who had fallen on hard times.
I only deduced that he has fallen on hard times, because his certified cashier's check bounced. I'm still waiting to hear back from him.