Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

Official Policy, regulation

Aussies: Get a virus, no Web for you! – Yahoo! News

Aussies: Get a virus, no Web for you! – Yahoo! News.  Does it sound reasonable to you that you should be required to have basic anti-virus and and security software installed in order to access the Internet?  And, that if your machine gets a virus, you can be quarantined (the way Syracuse University does to users of its network)?  Just such a policy is being considered in Australia, but the blogger at the above link calls it backwards: blaming the victim.

How do you deal with an epidemic like the spread of computer malware? Australia thinks it has the answer: Blame the victim.

I’m not entirely joking: A new plan floated by the country’s House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications suggests that Australia should allow ISPs to mandate anti-virus and firewall protection among their customers. If a customer does get a malware infection, the ISP would be allowed to cut off that customer’s connection until the problem was fixed.

You can read the article and posted comments at Aussies: Get a virus, no Web for you!

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