Viruses

Government Acts to Zap Zombies

7th November, 2005  |  Steve @ 1:48 pm
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In an attempt to cut down the number of infected computers across the nation, the Australian Government has announced a pilot program to help identify zombie computers.

In an official announcement, Senator The Hon Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, states that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will work with five participating ISPs to help eliminate networks of infected computers used for malicious purposes, such as sending vast quantities of spam.

The plan is for ACMA to inform the ISPs of any zombie (infected) computers on their network. The notified ISP will in turn notify the owner of the infected PC and work with them to clean their computer.

“Computer owners are often unaware that their computers are being controlled by others and used for malicious purposes,” the Minister said. More concerning is that these Zombies can then be ‘collected’ in their thousands by hackers to form ‘botnets’ – which can then be used to launch large scale attacks or release huge amounts of spam. “The risks from zombie computers and botnets was highlighted by the arrest in the US last week of a hacker who had assembled a network of up to 400,000 computers which was then on sold to hackers and spammers,” Senator Coonan said. Government Acts to Zap Zombies — Sen. The Hon. Helen Coonan

Good to see that there’s actually some effort being put into a reasonably realistic (albeit difficult) solution. However, the biggest hurdle is always actually helping those who know little about their computers to remove the offending malware. That’s the hard bit.

Whether it works in practice is yet to be seen, but if it cuts out only 10% of useless traffic it might just be worthwhile. :)

Blessings, Steve

References

[Listening to Cartoon, Ovine/Bovine — Cow ]

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