Security Experts Fear Attack of Comcast Botnet Notification System

Security experts fear that US residential Internet Service Provider (ISP), Comcast's latest botnet notification system, claiming that it will be abused by hackers.

Details show that in the last few months, Comcast will come up with service called "Constant Guard" to all the 16 million subscribers.

Customers will get mails with information about the working of Botnet Identification and Notification service works and information on how hackers circulate malware through mails with harmful attachments and Web links that make botnets out of many infected systems. The botnets are then controlled to circulate spam or initiate distributed denial-of-service attacks made to hit sites.

While Comcast's plan is perfect, it is being rejected by security experts as they foresee it as an exciting opportunity for forged AV/ scareware hackers.

Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor at Sophos, cautions that these banners get injected into sites and spam customers with the messages leading them to standard fake AV installer, as per the news by Softpedia on October 6, 2010.

And for customers who get a notice but are using a wireless router behind their cable modem will not be able to figure out which system is infected with malware.

Further, while wireless routers plug straightaway into high-speed Internet modems and enable several computers to use the same Internet address and connection. Comcast's Constant Guard cannot isolate the malware infection beyond the Internet address assigned to the customer's modem.

The security experts suggested that ISPs who find infected machines on their networks should disconnect the customer's Internet access until the infection is cleaned up properly. This would reduce the botnet traffic tremendously and can make the users more aware about the good security practices. Also, the disconnection of Internet would immediately capture the user's attention. It may appear harsh firstly, but it improves the overall health of the Internet ecosystem.

Further, the security experts recommended that a phone number for people to call might be more suitable. This is the same approach taken by German authorities and some other ISPs in their new Anti-Botnet Initiative.

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» SPAMfighter News - 10/15/2010