In early September, a federal jury in California levied a
total of $32 million in damages from two Internet service providers that
knowingly supported websites that were running illegal operations. The jury
ruled that two ISPs knew about counterfeit Louis Vuitton goods that were being
sold on their customers' sites, but didn't act quickly to deactivate those
sites. Legal experts say the case could set an important precedent if companies
can prove that an ISP knowingly supports criminal websites -- such as those
used to commit fraud or copyright infringement -- but does not take them
offline.
And later in September, Eric Davis, the head of Google's
Anti-Malvertising team, urged ISPs to look beyond profits and take a more
proactive approach to dealing with malware-infested computers on their
networks. "The ISPs are in the best position to detected infected machines.
They're in the best place to do something about malware.They already have monitoring systems
that could be used to identify signs of malware and botnet activity.If they see abnormally high
e-mail activity, that's most likely spam from a botnet," Davis said.
The ISP industry appears to be responding to the pressure.
In September, the Internet Industry Association of Australia
drafted a new code of conduct that suggested ISPs contact, and in some cases
disconnect, customers that have malware-infected computers. The drafted code, which will not be mandatory, suggested
ISPs take a four-step approach to protecting customers.
Identification of compromised computers
Contact affected customer
Provision of information and advice to fix the compromised system; and
A reporting function for alerting about serious scale threats, such as those,
that may threaten national security.
In October in the Netherlands, 14 ISPs that comprise 98
percent of the consumer market there launched a joint effort to fight malware-infected
computers and botnets. The effort will include:
Exchange of relevant information among the
cooperating ISPs
Quarantine of infected computers
Notification of end users by their ISPs
Also in October, Comcast, the largest residential ISP in the
U.S., announce the launch of a trial implementation of its new Constant Guard
program, which delivers an in-browser notification "Service Notice", that will
alert customers whose computers appear to be infected with a bot (or virus) and
request that they go to the Anti-Virus Center and follow a set of instructions
to assist with removing the bot from their computer and thereby prevent it from
spreading to other users.
According to Jerry Upton, executive director of the Messaging
Anti-Abuse Working Group, "The new Comcast safeguards are in line with industry
best practices to help ISPs assist customers whose machines have been infected
with malware.By deploying the
technology to detect bots on their subscribers' computers, Comcast is providing
a service to their customers and contributing to safer messaging."
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