Comcast's War On Infected PCs (Or All Customers)

thadmiller writes "Comcast is launching a trial on Thursday of a new automated service that will warn broadband customers of possible virus infections if the computers are behaving as if they have been compromised by malware. For instance, a significant overnight spike in traffic being sent from a particular Internet Protocol address could signal that a computer is infected with a virus, taking control of the system and using it to send spam as part of a botnet." Update: Jason Livingood of Comcast's Internet Systems Engineering group sent to Dave Farber's "Interesting People" mailing list a more detailed explanation of what this trial will involve.

Comments

I count myself lucky...

[endofoctober]

...that they called and told me that I had a zombie PC. I run updates, antivirus software and am very careful about where I go on the web, and what I download. Despite all my precautions, though, my PC got infected via an infected CD from my office (autorun is now turned off, btw). I got a call from Comcast saying that they'd noticed some odd traffic. The tech guy said it looked like my PC had been infected although it didn't seem to be actively sending/receiving any unusual data. After a quick re-scan with my antivirus software, it was gone, and all was right with the world (well, my tiny corner of it, anyway). I was used to Comcast sucking hardcore before this happened. Now my attitude is a little better toward them -- the Comcast tech guy knew his stuff, and was very helpful.