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Botnet Mafia in Online Turf War

Posted by samzenpus on from the make-them-an-offer-they-can't-refuse dept.

An anonymous reader writes " The kind of turf war seen in the real world by drug gangs is being replicated by the criminal gangs behind spamming botnets, and things are turning nasty."

1 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. ISPs have to be the solution by sherriw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Time for ISPs to stop being so nicey-nice about this.

    1) Send an email to all customers saying that the ISP will begin choosing a random day (say every 3 months or so) to scan for infected computers churning out email.
    2) On that random day (random so the spam bots won't be programmed to be silent on that day) the ISP shuts down outgoing mail for all infected computers on their network.
    3) Customer who can't send mail is irate and calls ISP tech support hotline.
    4) Tech support says: we warned you... please follow these virus removal instructions and install/update your anti virus software.

    Bam problem solved. People who keep getting blocked every 3 months will quickly learn to take better care of their computers. Along with the customer's invoice the ISP could send an information sheet with prevention and removal instructions.

    Maybe governments can give ISPs a little financial help for doing this?

    Unfortunately I don't see any other solution other than tough-love.