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Microsoft Eyes PC Isolation Ward To Thwart Botnets
CWmike writes "In a paper published Wednesday (PDF), Scott Charney, who heads Microsoft's trustworthy computing group, spelled out a concept of 'collective defense' that he said was modeled after public health measures like vaccinations and quarantines. The aim: To block botnet-infected computers from connecting to the Internet. Under the proposal, PCs would be issued a 'health certificate' that showed whether the system was fully patched, that it was running security software and a firewall, and that it was malware-free. Machines with deficiencies would require patching or an antivirus update, while bot-infected PCs might be barred from the Internet."
This is a not-at-all-terrible idea that will ensure people are up to date with such security patches as WGA. Bravo, Microsoft, bravo.
RUN NORTON OR NO INTERNET
If those are my only two choices, I'll take NO INTERNET please.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
M$ should be bared from the Internet.
Why do you make me think of naked Ballmer? What did I ever do to you?
This would be really ugly for Linux, BSD, and possible OS X boxen, but I would expect Apple to play along while proclaiming that their certificates are better because they come stamped with a big shiny sticker.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Perhaps it's MS that should be cordoned off from the net at large...
Oohh, doesn't sound like such a good idea now, does it MS?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Every single time I see the stupid little popup telling me my Windows machine is possibly infected, I click on it.
WHAT ELSE DOES MICROSOFT WANT FROM ME?!?!
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.