What should we do with Malware Infected PCs?

Read Microsoft Vice President of Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney’s informal comments and let me know how you feel about his comparison between malware infected machines effects on other PC’s and the effects of second hand smoke as a driving force for EPA regulations.

This is like playing… hmm, nothing as complex as chess… maybe its more like Tic-Tac-Toe. When it comes to knowing when a Windows based PC or Server is threat to other computers Microsoft should be able to let us know. However, any mechanism they use to let us know – a network based ‘tweet’, a page shot to the print queue, or even a pop message on the users screen – will come under attack and the baddies will ensure that the feature does not work. It’s far easier to STOP a page from printing or to stop a PC from contacting a server than it is to make it DO those things in the first place.

I had one thought of a way that might be effective if implemented but I need to talk to out with Brian and Mike before I commit it to ‘paper’ since I may be missing something important. The idea came from a technique the virus writers themselves have used for several years now.

(Update: I was about to hit Publish and I thought of three ways to get around my idea so it belongs of the scrap heap.)

Here is Scott Charney’s statement (and you can read more at the link at the bottom).

“The [Environmental Protection Agency] comes out with second hand smoke and suddenly smoking is banned everywhere,” he said during a keynote at the RSA security conference in San Francisco. “You have a right to infect and give yourself illness. You don’t have the right to infect your neighbor. Computers are the same way.”

Charney is the latest to champion the idea that infected PC users should be put in their own rubber room, so the malware, spam, and other attacks they generate can’t harm others. The logistics of such a plan remain woefully unformed. While many say ISPs should monitor subscribers for infections, there’s considerable disagreement about how with providers should carry out and pay for such a system.

via Microsoft wants to put infected PCs in rubber room @ The Register.

Scott Charney

By the way, one thing I love about technology and the people involved:

Charney holds a law degree with honors from Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and bachelor degrees in History and English from the State University of New York in Binghamton.

When else in history would a English and History major be leading the “effort to help ensure secure, private and reliable computing experiences for everyone.”