Australians Using Internet may’ve to Install Firewall and Anti-virus

A new parliamentary investigation into cyber-crime that lasted a year forwarded a proposal that Australians must have firewall and anti-virus applications deployed without which they'll not be allowed to use the Internet.

Alastair MacGibbon, a well-known consultant for Internet security who was the director of Australian High Tech Crime of AFP as well as ex-security chief of eBay has raised a point that the proposal be improved upon. According to him, ISPs should be compelled to keep a watch on users' systems with respect to security, and stop their access to the Internet in case the computers' operating systems, browsers and/or security software aren't qualitatively standardized. Smh.com.au reported this on June 22, 2010.

Remarking about the plan, Belinda Neal, Chair of Committee stated that as malware and other cyber-crimes grew exponentially over the recent years, it could no longer be expected that end-users could/should be solely made accountable for personal Internet security. ZDNet reported this on June 22, 2010. Neal made the statement in her introductory note for the 262-page paper entitled "Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime."

Historically, cyber-crime associates with malware. So to describe malware, it is bad software that includes worms, viruses and trojans effectively compromising users' PCs as also being utilized for launching assaults against others' PCs, digging at Internet users' personal data, or distributing spam mails.

Significantly, the Australian government is making efforts towards enhancing the country's cyber security. An observation in a new report by M86 Security, a security company suggests that Australia will continue to be threatened with cyber-crime till the time more workable threat detection along with security procedures are enforced.

States the security company, about 70%-90% of the total websites presently contaminated with bad software in reality are genuine.

Therefore, security specialists are of the opinion that the government's initiative will considerably bring down malware attacks across Australia.

But, a few industry specialists don't support this law. Chief Executive Peter Coroneos of the Internet Industry Association, fearing impracticality of such ideas states that the government may not succeed in implementing the ISPs' agreement policies vis-à-vis their clients. Smh.com.au reported this.

Related article: Australian Blogger Uses Spam To Boost Blog

» SPAMfighter News - 6/30/2010