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Aussie Gov't Decides ISPs Aren't Responsible For Infected Computers

Posted by Soulskill on from the how-magnanimous-of-you dept.

c0lo writes "In a sudden outburst of common sense, the Australian senate decided that it is not the government's responsibility to force ISPs to disconnect infected computers from the Internet. Peter Coroneos, chief of the Internet Industry Association, used a car analogy that actually makes sense: 'It would be like forcing car manufacturers to take responsibility for bad drivers.'"

1 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Perhaps once, soon not... by Mathinker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > but once they know about it they have multiple ways of fixing the situation and then they are indeed fully in control.

    Unfortunately, the fact is that as time goes on, there are more and more components in computers which themselves are programmable (with microcode, for example) yet not easily "format-able" like the magnetic media of a hard disk. Hiding malware in these devices is a hot topic of current research (BIOS-level rootkits, WiFi adapters hosting malware), and could easily become reality for a capable, targeted attack (look at Stuxnet, for example, but imagine what might have been if the industrial controller had been sophisticated enough to have hosted a multihost malware which could spread itself back to "cleaned-up" computers).

    I have the feeling that there will be a large gap (because of fear of loss of IP or control, or DMCA-like laws trying to protect copyright) in the tools hardware manufacturers give consumers to "sanitize" possibly infected hardware, and the ability of black hats to use infected hardware to gain more permanent control over infected computers.