US Shows Interest In Zombie Quarantine Code

bennyboy64 writes "Barack Obama's cyber-security coordinator has shown interest in an e-security code of practice developed in Australia that aims to quarantine Internet users infected by malware, also known as zombie computers. He reportedly said it would be a useful role model for the US to adopt. One suggestion within the code is to put infected users into a 'walled garden,' which limits Internet access to prevent further security problems until quarantined. Another is to throttle the speed of an infected users' Internet connection until their computer fixed. The code is also being considered by other Asia-Pacific countries, ZDNet reports."

Comments

It's cyber-security coordinator Howard Schmidt.

[elucido]

Obama has nothing to do with this idea. Read the article where it says cyber-security coordinator Howard Schmidt came up with this idea. If you think it's a bad idea you should direct your anger to the person who thought of it. Obama is not in charge of cyber security and we don't even know if Obama is the one behind the cyber policy to begin with. So to blame Obama is pointless. In fact Obama claimed to be for network neutrality so if hes changing his mind on an issue as critical is this, it's a shame he wont be re-elected because hes going to lose virtually all of the youth vote if he messes up on the internet.

Re:Seems reasonable

[bmo]

"My only real concern is that of privacy. How exactly do they go about telling you're a zombie? Well written malware isn't exactly going to advertise infection, "

Yes it does.

It does every time it broadcasts. This is not to stop the criminals from stealing your CC, this is to stop the DDoS attacks and other silliness.

There is software that analyses DDoS attacks at the victim's end. We've seen videos of it referenced here, with 3D graphs in almost a Neuromancer display. I believe the video in question was a government network being DDoS attacked at the time. The feds know when the botnets are active and when they're quiet. When the botnet wakes from its slumber, grab the IPs and issue the quarantine orders.

This is far better than the insane "kill switch" that Lieberman likes so much. The twat.

--
BMO

Re:This is not their job.

[vtcodger]

I'm supposed to believe that Comcast, Verison, et. al. can accurately identify machines that are infected by malware then wall them off? And somehow inform their owners? Then unwall them when the infection is cleared? And that there will be no or very few false determinations of infection? On what planet is this going to occur?

Comcast on my planet -- it's called Earth -- can't even manage to set the audio on all it's cable broadcasts to the same level. To say that it lacks the technical skills to detect and quarantine user malware infections and the administrative skills to manage a quarantine effort seems to understate the situation.

I do not think it is unusual and that other ISPs will do better.

Re:This is not their job.

[TheRaven64]

It was designed for the military. You don't get much more authoritarian than that.

It may have been designed for the military, but it was designed by a bunch of hippies at Berkeley (and elsewhere)...

Re:I'm not convinced.

[commodore64_love]

Also you have to remember "voluntary" doesn't mean the same to us and to Rahm Emmanuel. I have a video where he is discussing a Fairness Doctrine for the Net, where popups would appear on foxnews.com to encourage people to go read a liberal website instead, and he talks about "voluntary compliance" by the internet company.

But then he immediately followed it up with, "And if they don't do it voluntarily we can compel them with laws. Sometimes you have to MAKE people do the right thing." - So for him the word voluntary only applies if you agree with him, and if you don't agree, then he'll use the force of government (law) to compel you.