Infected Computers Could Be Quarantined from the Internet

[#1]

Interesting read.....

Quote

In the future, computers compromised by malware could be quarantined from the Internet, just as patients infected with contagious diseases are being isolated today. The new security model proposed by Microsoft is designed to keep the Internet healthy, by making sure that the devices connected to the world wide web are healthy. Scott Charney, Corporate Vice President, Trustworthy Computing argued for the necessity of a Global Collective Defense on the Internet during the International Security Solutions Europe (ISSE) Conference in Berlin, Germany. In the Collective Defense: Applying Public Health Models to the Internet whitepaper, Charney explains the need for collaboration among a variety of entities including governments, the IT industry, Internet access providers, users, etc. in order to ensure that the Internet is kept healthy. The new Internet security vision exemplified by the Redmond company, and inspired by globally accepted public health practices, involves the evaluation of consumer devices health ahead of permitting the users to access the Internet or any additional critical resources. “Just as when an individual who is not vaccinated puts others’ health at risk, computers that are not protected or have been compromised with a bot put others at risk and pose a greater threat to society,” Charney explained. “In the physical world, international, national, and local health organizations identify, track and control the spread of disease which can include, where necessary, quarantining people to avoid the infection of others. “Simply put, we need to improve and maintain the health of consumer devices connected to the Internet in order to avoid greater societal risk,” Charney added. Fact is that cyber threats present a risk to both Internet users and critical infrastructures, and while much work has already been done, it is simply not enough to ensure that devices or the web are indeed healthy. Security defenses such as firewalls, antivirus and automatic updates for patches are proving to be mere mitigations which can be bypassed by attackers provided they have sufficient resources and time.

More Here....http://news.softpedia.com/news/Infected-Computers-Could-Be-Quarantined-from-the-Internet-159436.shtml

[#2]

What a brilliant idea...... now I wonder which computer manufacturer came up with that one...... 
In other words.... if you get a virus/malware/email phishing attack..... then you may just as well chuck the computer in the bin, and have to buy a new one....
what a wheeze.... It will certainly boost the new computer/laptop/ipod/etc etc etc sales.... just imagine how many machines are already infected in the world....
and  suddenly...... how many of them owners  find they cannot connect to the internet...

[#3]

It could work - if there was a specific site contributed to by all the virus protection organisations etc. which had all the tools needed to clear up an infection. Instead of totally blocking the PC if was such that the only thing they could do was access the one site they'd be able to clean up.

[#4]

I can see many flaws In this which Is why I posted It.

[#5]

I'm all in favour of the basic idea - with a few obvious safeguards. It's about time we did something about the various botnets etc and just sitting here wringing our hands achieves nothing and costs us time and money.

[#6]

i remember the story a couple years ago, when they reverse engineered one of the big bot nets and had the chance to auto clean all PC's currently connected to the bot net.
but they choice not to do this as it could of had legal impact on them doing something to peoples computers that was not requested or something similar
am sure we covered the story on this forum but for all the nuclear waste in north Korea i cant find it

[#7]

Actually this already happens a good deal, but after the event!  A lot of the malware that tries to convince you to buy fake security software ("scamware") sets your computer to use a proxy server.  I presume it changes this server's IP address frequently to keep ahead of the authorities.  If the malware is disabled or removed then you are stuck with a proxy server that rapidly fails to work so then you have no internet access. 

[#8]

What gets me is this:
If they're going to quarantine your computer from the internet, then they need to know that its infected in the first place. Now how do you suppose they're going to get that information? - Who really is going to sit at their computer half an hour every day doing a scan and uploading a log file etc? - No one. Nope, they'll just make it legal that they have access to your PC and can hack into it if needed. Of course that will need to be financed (and no doubt MS will take a slice of the cake for their R&D costs and profit) and who's going to be paying for that? - Us.
Nice one Bill, great idea. Love it... NOT.

[#9]

Quote from: okrzynska

Nope, they'll just make it legal that they have access to your PC and can hack into it if needed.

That's a nice bit of FUD and would be a complete PITA for the ISPs etc to implement. They're far more likely to check for the effects of PCs being infected, such as identifying patterns of network usage, like accessing known bot control networks, or sudden continuous floods of emails, or emails being sent with embedded viruses.

[#10]

This is true but thats relying on something I call prediction intelligence. Intel can be wrong (and frequently is - just look at the americans). Suppose I run a webserver and suddenly decide to email all my members? - I'm going to be disconnected because my network has sent out some emails?
It's a stupid idea. All it will do is drive malware authors further underground and make them sneakier. Remember when the rootkits first turned up? - They'd been in use for a while before anyone found them - as the authors had been driven to sneakier tactics to remain undiscovered. Thats all that will happen this time too.
Of course.. the police already have legal powers to hack your PC / network if they see the need..