Australian Cybercrime Enquiry Report Released 81
An anonymous reader writes "The Australian Government Standing Committee on Communications has released the results of a year long enquiry into cybercrime in a report titled Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime. This report includes a recommendation that Internet Service Provider customers should be forced to install anti-virus and firewall software on their computers as part of their contractual obligations. The Australian Communications and Media Authority receive further powers and responsibilities under the recommendations with respect to shutting down websites hosting malicious content and ensuring that infected consumer devices are disconnected from the Internet."
Re:Taking the piss (Score:2, Informative)
and ensuring that infected consumer devices are disconnected from the Internet.
Sounds like there are some reasonable suggestions in there.
Devil in the Details (Score:2, Informative)
The problem is not the idea of everyone having anti-virus, it's that you want the ISPs to distribute and enforce it.
I don't know about you, but I would never install any software given to me by an ISP. In Canada, Rogers actually have a history of opening more security holes than they close with their Firewall/AV software. To the point that some large corporations IT departments won't let you VPN in from home if you have the software installed.
In my experience ISP software is typically one of the worst forms of insecure bloatware you can put on a computer.
Re:Anti-Virus and Firewall software.. UGH (Score:3, Informative)
Define 'proper' in this context. Windows has come with built in firewall software for years, since XP SP2 IIRC. Is that 'proper' enough? What about the most up-to-date patched Windows 7 system? Where do you draw the line?
UNIX firewalls might be the best in the world today, but tomorrow someone might discover a critical flaw that opens up every Linux box to all kinds of nasties. Similarly, saying "Install Norton/Mcaffee/whatever" is susceptible to a similar flaw. It might be the recommended A/V product, but tomorrow some hax0rs might find a vulnerability with it and every computer in Australia is vulnerable to it.