Aussies: Get a virus, no Web for you!

[Sporkman]

Aussies: Get a virus, no Web for you!

Tue Jun 22, 5:51 pm ET

How do you deal with an epidemic like the spread of computer malware? Australia thinks it has the answer: Blame the victim.

I’m not entirely joking: A new plan floated by the country’s House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications suggests that Australia should allow ISPs to mandate anti-virus and firewall protection among their customers. If a customer does get a malware infection, the ISP would be allowed to cut off that customer’s connection until the problem was fixed...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_wguy/2...ch_wguy_tc2777

[whiskeylover]

LOL Aussies

[alphaniner]

No arguments here.

[dragos240]

That's actually smart. Sure, they have no internet, but only until it's gone. Besides, we use linux here, and there are far less viruses for linux then there are for windows.

[Sporkman]

That's actually smart. Sure, they have no internet, but only until it's gone. Besides, we use linux here, and there are far less viruses for linux then there are for windows.

What about the "mandate[d] anti-virus and firewall protection"? What happens when you tell then that you can't install their software package because you are running an unsupported OS?

[Sporkman]

Also from the article:

That said, the difficulties with implementing such a solution seem almost insurmountable. How exactly would an ISP identify infected machines? And would it be able to distinguish among Windows, Macs, Linux, and other devices? How would false positives be avoided? What’s the process for fixing a machine that’s been knocked off the Net? After all, if a user is unsophisticated to the point where he doesn’t know he has a virus, how will he be able to correct the problem without Web access? (I suppose that’s what that 24-hour helpline is for.)

[98cwitr]

haha DDoS attack from none other than....your ISP. That's some backward *** logic. Only a politician could have come up with something so stupid.

[Xianath]

A guy I know down there often says he's never seen a roo except at the zoo. Now I know. Them bloody roos are in their parliament!

Chase: "I'm not British, I'm Australian"
House: "You have the Queen on your money, that makes you British."

[madjr]

i would suggest them to migrate to linux

[Penguin Guy]

Seems unfair, but I can see the logic behind it - although I think it's OTT.