Isolation of Infected Computers from the Internet Could Be Possible in Future

According to a new security model proposed by software king Microsoft, it will be possible in future to isolate computers infected with malware from the internet.

Scott Charney, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's computing team, noted on the company's blog that botnet-infected systems should not be permitted to access the Internet until they prove themselves clean with a digital health certificate, as reported by SiliconIndia on October 08, 2010.

Charney further stated that in case if the situation is more critical, for instance if the computer is producing malicious data packets, or if the web user rejects to produce a health certificate in the first chance, additional measures, like throttling the bandwidth of the compromised device, may be apt to handle the situation. Charney added that the distribution of computer viruses had continued insistently in spite of the excellent attempts of software companies, as reported by guardian on October 07, 2010.

According to the data available, around millions of operating computers across the globe are infected with viruses, even without the knowledge of their users'. These infected computers produce numerous spam e-mails and targets against websites, such as that used against a British law company earlier.

In fact, cyber threats pose a risk to both web users and significant infrastructures, and while much work has already been completed, it is just not sufficient to make sure that the web or devices are really healthy.

Security protections like, anti-virus, firewalls, and automatic updates for patches are proving to be mere mitigations, which can be easily evaded by the attackers provided they have ample time and resources.

In this regard, a global Collective Defense would be ideal to provide effective Internet security. However, for this several players need to team up closely and come to an accord in terms of how public health principles can be put into practice to the Internet.

However, security experts cautioned that blocking people from the internet could be an extreme step too far and the dilemma of who would be responsible for issuing and verifying the "health certificate" was troublesome.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/12/2010