Australian ISPs To Disconnect Botnet "Zombies"

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)."

Comments

Bad Precedent?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather not have my ISP decide what is a "virus" or "inappropriate communications" thank you. If the users are consuming too much bandwidth then disconnect them on those grounds, but please don't set this precedent.

Re:Bad Precedent?

[v1]

They usually watch for excessive traffic on specific ports. Since the most immediately profitable use of a botnetted machine is spam, the majority of botnetted PCs are either running open mail relays or are themselves functioning as outgoing mailservers. Many ISPs (including two in my area) watch for excessive traffic going OUT on TCP port 25. Unless you are running a mailserver, your computer has no legitimate reason to send out over that port in volume. Most ISP mailservers are SSL nowadays anyway and are off port 25 so you don't even need to use that if you are connecting to your ISP's mailserver from off-network. (and many ISPs outright block port 25 outgoing from anything in their network besides their mailserver) Many ISPs react the same if your computer is listening on port 25 (acting as an open relay)

So if you are pushing megs (or gigs) a day every day on port 25, there's better than 99% chance your machine is botnetted. It doesn't take speculation to figure that out, and the odds of false-positives are very close to zero.

That said, I have no sympathy for someone that knows their computer has a problem that's causing other people grief. That's the most basic understanding of the problem that is given when your ISP gives you a phonecall or email saying you have a problem and need to fix it or we will cut you off. If you're too stupid to acknowledge this and take responsibility for fixing it, or just plain don't care, I'd much rather see you off the internet and out of my Inbox. If you don't care that someone else has violated you by hijacking your computer that's fine with me, until they start using it to violate me, and that's when I start having a say in the matter.

If you want a fun example to separate the computer from the problem, here's something easier to understand: ABC Construction company does building demolitions. They leave their explosives on site and not locked up. They keep getting their explosives stolen. OK I don't care about that, it's their loss. But then stuff around town start getting blown up and the explosives are easily traced back to you. That's when it's time for the police to come have a talk with you about securing your explosives. You do not have the right to continue leaving dangerous things so easily accessible that the public is constantly being hurt by them. Even if you want to ignore your moral responsibility for it, the public won't stand for it and you lose your say in the matter. You WILL secure your things or you WILL go away.

Another excellent example is how several states legally require you to have a lock on your anhydrous ammonia tanks to prevent theft and use in drug manufacture. Also, most universities now are requiring students to install AV software on their computers before they're allowed to use the campus net. Your precedents have already been set.

Re:Privacy

[DavidTC]

Actually, it's more like your phone company disconnecting you for repeatedly making prank calls.

Which, in fact, they will.