OK, before I get started with this blog entry, I want to be up font with you. I have become a cliche… I am writing this from Starbucks whilst sipping a cafe mocha and leeching off their free ‘lectricity. I have truly become one of those stereotype bloggers. Shoot me now. Anyway, on with the post…
It seems that the German government is getting together with ISPs to set up a help line for citizens whose PCs are infected with malware. The ISPs will watch network traffic for signs of communications between zombie computers and their evil controllers. When the ISPs detect malware activity, they will direct users to a website with instructions on getting their computers free of viruses, worms, back doors and the like. For users who need additional help, 40 government employees will staff a call center dedicated to helping out. (This truly sounds like a job from hell…).
This is a great idea, which other countries should consider with one twist; vendors such as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the like should be required to kick in some funding for this type of work. After all, it is their software which opens the doors to cybercriminals and (potentially) cyberterrorists. Maybe pegging the amount they have to pay to the number of security advisories issued by the CERT about their software would make sense. It would be pretty easy to gauge the success of this type of an effort by tracking and publishing stats on the numbers of infected machines before and after. As for the cost beyond the vendor kickins, there are a lot of places in the US federal budget to get the money from…
What do you think?
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