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Guarded Optimism

eiverson@... 9th Oct 2009

Total indifference and inaction serves no ones interests. I look forward to watching how this plays out. Will it be effective in contacting the computer owners? Will it turn into some kind of a revenue stream for Comcast, or will it simply be a mutual interest endeavor.

I sympathize with the ISP's dilema. The more they try to help their customers be malware free, the deeper they risk getting pulled into a quagmire.

As for scanning PCs for infections, that's less and less effective. And if a computer is already rooted with a 3rd generation nasty, what is a typical consumer to do?

Consumers could install something like my company's AppGuard to block what their signature-based software misses. There are other good products too. But, again, if the computer is already rooted...

This brings me to a simple idea that operational reality would probably tear apart. ISP's would make boot disks available to their customers. These disks would upload user files and settings to an ISP server, or to a local hard drive provided by the consumer, and a fresh install of whatever Windows OS they've been using would be done. The user files would then be placed back on the computer. Obviously, privacy issues must be addressed (Mozy, Carbonite, etc.) and it would be useful to scan all user files (scanning is worth a try). This might require considerable support from Microsoft, maybe even free or low-cost upgrades to newer operating systems (free for Win98 to XP, low cost to Win 7).

Again, operational realities and all of the things that could go wrong... Its probably better for the ISP's that they only provide consumers with suspected malware infestations, contact information for local IT services as well as a short list of things consumers can do.

Home computers are frightening things. More disturbing is that a lot of people use them for work too. That's why I wrote the blog below:

http://www.blueridgenetworks.com/securitynowblog/endpoint_security/data_leak_prevention_must_handle_home_computer_use