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Australians Go After Zombies
Chris Crum
Staff Writer
2005-11-07
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The Australian government has decided to take matters into its own hands and recruit 5 ISPs to assist it with the fight against zombie computers.
Among these ISPs are Telstra BigPond, OptusNet, Westnet, Pacific Internet and West Australian Networks. Each of these ISPs will get a list of IP address of suspicious computers, and then get a hold of their customers and assist them in correcting the problem.
The effort itself is called the Australian Internet Security Initiative or AISI, and is being initiated by Senator Helen Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.
The AISI started today, and will last for three months as a trial, and then if successful, I would assume that it will continue. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is behind the trial. ZDNet UK reports:
According to a statement from the ACMA, if the owner of a computer contacted by an ISP is unwilling or unable to disinfect that machine, the ISP could remove its connection to the Internet: "if the computer remains a threat to other Internet users, the ISPs may take steps under their acceptable use policy to disconnect the computer until the problem is resolved".
Dennis Muscat, managing director of Melbourne-based Pacific Internet, said that customers usually have no idea their computer is infected: "Our experience has been that customers are usually completely unaware that their computer is compromised and they've been very grateful for the notification".
According to Australian IT, Senator Coonan cited the recent arrest of the "BotMaster" in the U.S. as highlighting the need to take action against the zombies.
About the Author:
Chris Crum is a staff writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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