"German ISPs team up with gov agency to clean up malware"

[Hermite15]

sounds good if you want my opinion:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/09/german_botnet_blitz/

The German government is planning to establish a botnet cleanup helpline for computer users affected by malware infection.

ISPs are teaming up with the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) to set up an operation geared towards cleansing consumer systems from botnet infestation. ISPs will track down infected machines, before directing users towards a website offering advice and an associated call centre, staffed by around 40.

The project, due to start in 2010, was announced on Tuesday at the German IT summit in Stuttgart. No funding details were provided.

original statement in German:
http://www.eco.de/verband/202_7263.htm

[polonus]

Hi Logos,

Good initiative, but another reason behind this warning scheme  is that they want to leave the top 10 list of European countries ridden with malware, both BSI and Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft (eco) want that badly. At the moment Germany is ranking somewhere in the top 5 list with the largest number of malcode infections. Not something to boast about. With their warning scheme, they run another risk that this opens up the door to malcreants to send non-infested systems to infested sites. "Aber darueber hatten wir uns noch keine Gedanken gemacht", another question is whether providers could take such actions legally: http://www.heise.de/security/meldung/Deutschland-Zentrale-gegen-Botnetze-geplant-879580.html

Anyway, they take some action and we wish them loads of success,

Damian

[DavidR]

Good Initiative, a shame the only thing the British Government seems bothered about having ISPs gather data on and banning file sharers.

[Hermite15]

Good Initiative, a shame the only thing the British Government seems bothered about having ISPs gather data on and banning file sharers.

same here in France...not saying that piracy shouldn't be fought by all means... but the risk with the new laws we have here now is that the wrong guys could be targeted, either someone whose IP got hijacked, or someone "pirating" at a low level... this said they also want to hold the ISPs for responsible if access to "very bad sites" is granted to the customers, so it's not gonna be just the customer being sued for Internet pedophilia for instance, but the ISP as well   and I can just applause to this  
 As to online malware spreading the way we know (as it's the topic of this thread), there's not much being done to my knowledge in France either. The country (like most other countries) is overcrowded with infected systems run by people who don't even have a clue about it...they just think the computer doesn't work well anymore... yeah, the toy is broken, when a simple scan with Windows Defender would already show tens and tens of spyware and trojans squatting happily   ...

[DavidR]

Well it won't effect me, I don't use P2P applications and on dial-up file sharing is hardly feasible, but this Government could do with getting their priorities right and go after the on-line crooks, unfortunately they aren't a soft target.

[bob3160]

Well it won't effect me, I don't use P2P applications and on dial-up file sharing is hardly feasible, but this Government could do with getting their priorities right and go after the on-line crooks, unfortunately they aren't a soft target.

Besides, David, crooks have more rights than the public so why pick on them   :'(