We are halfway through May already and speaking of which, we are almost halfway through the year already. But what progress have we made in terms of cyber security. Spam is on the rise, malware infections are on the rise, botnets are growing bigger and more Internet users are turning into advance fee con artists. Pretty grim picture isn't it? No, I do not want to sound pessimistic, but the reality is that no piece of computer security software can protect you completely against Internet based threats. What am I saying... throw away all your spam filters, firewalls and anti-malware applications? No, not at all, they play an integral part in our protection against cyber threats, but even the best tools in the world can fail dramatically if they are not used by streetwise cyber citizens.
I guess most of you are glaring at your screen right now, asking yourself, "what the hell is he talking about?" Lets take two persons and put them in a dangerous neighbourhood, the one person is a high profile celebrity dependant on his bodyguards to keep him safe and the other person is a normal guy who grew up on the streets and learned to take care of himself. Which one is the most likely to survive, all by himself, in this dangerous neighbourhood? The latter of course. Why? Because he is streetwise, he doesn't need fancy tools and bodyguards to take care of him, he knows how to think for himself and what to look for in order to stay out of the heat. Computer security is a lot like that, you don't need to be an Einstein to stay safe in the online world, it is no rocket science to be streetwise, you just need to how to stay on top of your game, you catch my drift? Right, enough street slang, so lets get to the point.
I stumbled across a very interesting article about PC security, published by BitDefender. A BitDefender employee told me that the article is quite old, but nevertheless, it is a generic set of PC security rules that are still very applicable to computer security these days. I have a lot of positive things to say about this article, but it is not without some criticism, so without any further ado, lets take an objective look at the list of rules called the Ten Commandments for Your Computer Sanity.
"1. Don't assume anything. Take some time to learn about securing your system."
Perhaps the single and most important rule of them all. If you are not sure, ask for advice and try to understand why it is important to take certain precautions, don't just assume that's the way things are done.
"2. Acquire and use a reliable anti virus program. Select an anti virus that has a consistent track record. Checkmark, AV-Test.org and TuV are among the most respected independent testers of anti virus software."
So many people go out and download the first anti-virus program that pops up on their screen. Malware infested products are marketed very aggressively, so these less known, but dangerous applications often occupy top spots in search engine results and online contextual advertising, so never trust a download just because it appeared in the search results of your favourite search engine. Visit Spyware Warrior for a comprehensive list of rogue anti-spyware products.
"3. Acquire and use a reliable firewall solution. Again, independent reviewers are your best bet for reasonable choices. Some operating systems come with a firewall, which only filters incoming traffic. Use a firewall that can control both incoming and outgoing Internet traffic."
Firewalls were once a thing for computer experts and large corporations only, it was uncommon to find a firewall installed on a normal end user's computer. Like mentioned in the rule, we even have firewalls built into our operating systems these days (not that it really helped the online community in any way when I come to think of one specific operating system). But the necessity of a firewall increased in the last couple of years and it is irresponsible and suicidal these days to browse the Internet without a proper firewall that provides bi-directional protection. You need to know what is transmitted to and from your PC. You don't want malicious code to infiltrate your system and you don't want confidential and sensitive information to leave your PC without your consent.
"4. Do not open e-mails coming from unknown or distrusted sources. Many viruses spread via e-mail messages so please ask for a confirmation from the sender if you are in any doubt."
If more people can adhere to the first part of this rule we will have a lot less virus breakouts and spam. Each time you open a 'harmless' spam e-mail you give the spammer reason to send more spam because you respond to his e-mails. I have discussed this topic a hundred times before so I'm not going into it once again. With regard to the latter part of this rule, it won't be wise to ask for a confirmation from the sender in my humble opinion, you are just looking for more spam by replying to an unknown source. With so much e-mail forgery happening these days, it is anyway a complete waste of time to respond, because the sender's e-mail address is most likely invalid or spoofed.
"5. Do not open the attachments of messages with a suspicious or unexpected subject. If you want to open them, first save them to your hard disk and scan them with an updated anti virus program."
Once again, the first part of this rule is a piece of gold and can save you a lot of headaches if you stick to it, but I do not agree with the latter. It is almost like saying: "Don't shoot yourself with a 9mm, but if you want to, go ahead and take a peek down the barrel to make sure you are using blanks". If you get an e-mail with a suspicious or unexpected subject and on top of that some executable file, Word document, PDF, ZIP or any suspicious file attached to it, don't mess around with the bloody thing, delete it.
E-mail scanners have been with us for quite some time. The e-mail scanner of an anti-virus package uses the same database as the file scanner, so if an e-mail gets past your e-mail scanner, using the latest virus definition database available, what makes you think that the file scanner will do any better? Should you trust an attachment just because your anti-virus program told you the file is clean? A suspicious attachment from an unknown source has a 99.9% chance of being malicious, so why even bother scanning it? Many inexperienced users don't even know how to save an attachment and run it through an anti-virus scanner, so they walk a big risk of infecting themselves. My advice, if you don't know how to handle suspicious files properly, stick to the first part of this rule and ignore the latter.
"6. Delete any chain e-mails or unwanted messages. Do not forward them or reply to their senders. This kind of messages is considered spam, because it is undesired and unsolicited and it overloads the Internet traffic."
Pure words of wisdom. Many people simply assume that friends and family enjoy receiving junk chain letters and unbelievable, ridiculous stories that you need to forward to everyone in your address book. Who needs spammers if you have friends like this? Apart from spamming all your friends and breaking anti-spam laws, it also comes down to bad e-mail etiquette. The fact that your friends are on your mailing list does not give you the right to send them anything you want. Take your recipients into consideration and think before forwarding jokes, petition lists, chain letters and other kinds of junk mail to them.
"7. Avoid installing services and applications which are not needed in day-by-day operations in a desktop role, such as file transfer and file sharing servers, remote desktop servers and the like. Such programs are potential hazards, and should not be installed if not absolutely necessary."
There is a lot of truth in this, but unfortunately this is easier said than done. The blame lies on the side of software developers and not the end user installing the software. Ordinary users simply install the software and use it whenever it is needed. Little do they know that the software is running 24/7 in the background eating up valuable system resources. These programs put themselves in the Windows Start-up without informing the user about it, or the option to load the software at Windows Start-up is often pre-checked during the installation, so the user has to opt-out to prevent this from happening. These pre-checked options are often missed, because the user simply rushes through the 'easy' installation process. There is a reason why certain developers make the installation procedures so easy.
When I analyse HijackThis logs of malware victims, I often see loads of auto-update managers, system tray utilities, P2P clients and all kinds of 'junkware' loaded in the Windows Start-up. These users are always stunned by the sheer performance of their computers after I removed all these useless applications from the Windows Start-up. Ask someone to check the Start-up section of your PC and remove all the redundant entries. You will be amazed to see what difference this can make in your PC's performance. Don't leave file-sharing software like LimeWire, Shareaza or KaZaa running in the background all the time, they create a weakness in your security setup and make it easier for hackers to gain access to your system. As the rule says, these programs should rather be avoided if possible.
"8. Update your system and applications as often as possible. Some operating systems and applications can be set to update automatically. Make full use of this facility. Failure to patch your system often enough may leave it vulnerable to threats for which fixes already exist."
Most people are guilty of not updating their system on a regular basis. But there is a reason why people are afraid of updating. Remember what happened when Service Pack 2 of Windows XP was released for the first time and if I am not mistaking, history repeated itself with Service Pack 1 of Windows Vista this year.
I know one should lead by example, but I am perhaps the worst of them all. I haven't updated several of my applications in years, because I am happy with the versions I am using at the moment and don't want some update to screw everything up. If you stick closely to rule number one you automatically take your computer security to the next level. If you pay attention, to which sites you visit, which files you download and which programs you install, you can easily skip this rule for years without any malware incidents at all. Still it is wise to update your software when you have the chance. It is better to fix a broken wall even if you are never bothered by the outside world. The problem is however, you never know when the outside world might start to bother you, so rather be prepared than sorry.
"9. Do not copy any file if you don't know or don't trust its source. Check the source (provenance) of files you download and make sure that an anti virus program has already verified the files at their source."
Will you use a box of aspirins, from an unknown source, left on your doorstep? Off course not, even if you are familiar with the specific brand of aspirins, you have no idea where they came from. How can you be absolutely sure that they are really aspirins? Well, the same goes for computer files. If you can't verify the reliability of the source of a specific file, how can you trust the contents of that file? You have no idea where the file has been and you have no idea whether the contents of the file is really what it should be.
"10. Make backups of important personal files (correspondence, documents, pictures and such) on a regular basis. Store these copies on removable media such as CD or DVD. Keep your archive in a different location than the one your computer is in."
Backups, ah the one thing that no one ever does. Have you ever thought about what you can loose if you suddenly got infected with malware? What if a cracker gains access to your PC and delete your favourite music collection? Backups play a very important role in PC security, especially when it comes to system recovery after a malware infection or system failure. Any proper security setup should have solid backup policy. Without backups you will never fully recover from a severe system crash. Backups are your insurance against data loss. So if you are not in a habit of backing up your most important documents and data on a regular basis, rather start doing it before it is too late. BitDefender's Total Security can be set to perform automatic backups for you.
We live in an age where we can't rely on software alone to protect us from online threats. You are responsible for your own safety online, software applications like firewalls and anti-virus programs are only tools to help us in situations where things are out of our hands. Your personal computer security depends on your willingness to stick to these rules, being vigilant and using common sense. Treat everything as a threat until you can prove otherwise, this is the safest approach in the digital Wild Wild West.
If you have anything to add to this list of rules, feel free to leave your comments.
About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.
Showing posts with label PC Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PC Security. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Monday, September 24, 2007
PC Security DIY Part I: Malware - The Most Wanted Cyber Criminal
By Coenraad De Beer
More or less 3 weeks ago, several anti-scammer websites fell victim to DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks by the Storm botnet. The comments made on blogs and news sites about these attacks, made it clear once again that cyber security experts are well aware of the dangers of malware infections, which are the backbone of any botnet, as well as the impact these infections have on the online industry. The fact that security experts realise these problems is all good and well, but it does not really help addressing the problem. Normal computer users need to understand the implications of malware infections as well, but more importantly, they have to carry the consequences of their actions if they refuse to take appropriate preventative measures against malware.
Before we start, I would like to explain a couple of terms to users not familiar with DDoS attacks and botnets. A botnet is a network of software robots controlled remotely by crackers. A software robot in this specific case is a compromised computer, infected with specific malware types like Trojan horses and worms. A compromised computer is also called a "zombie computer". A botnet is therefore a collection of compromised or "zombie" computers. I am not going into the details of a DDoS attack, but a Denial of Service attack basically happens when a botnet sends thousands, even millions, of communication requests to a web server. This results in a bottleneck of incoming traffic, causing the server to crash, or making it so slow that it cannot serve the website to normal visitors anymore. An attack from a big botnet will therefore have a much larger impact on a web server than an attack from a smaller botnet. Okay, now that we have the jargon out of the way, lets delve deeper into the impact of malware infections on the Internet as a whole, but also for the individual Internet user.
The Internet is often referred to as the information superhighway. Off course the Internet as we know it today, is much more than just an information superhighway, the Internet has become a digital world where many offline tasks can be done online as well. You can work, play, recruit, date, shop, chat, watch TV, listen radio and do many other things online. But for the sake of this article I will stick to the term information superhighway, because the rules of the road fit perfectly in with what I want to illustrate. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that up to one quarter of all personal computers connected to the Internet, are part of a botnet. This estimate is not that hard to believe, I will even go so far to say that this figure may even be bigger than a quarter of the Internet's population, especially if you take into account the rate at which malware infections spread through the Internet. Ignorance plays a big role in malware infections, but don't leave negligence out of the equation. If it only stopped at ignorance and negligence, large and influential companies are able to address the problem, but they are unwilling to sacrifice profit for the safety of other Internet users.
Internet Service providers are in pole position to address the increasing threat of malware infections, the one thing that's making botnets grow larger and larger by the day. Unfortunately they are only interested in making money instead of providing a safe and quality service to their loyal and honest customers. No they would rather keep the clients distributing malware, sending out spam or taking part in Denial of Service attacks, because it means loss of revenue for them if they decide to suspend the services or terminate the accounts of these clients. Most ISPs will state in their Terms of Service that they do not tolerate this kind of behaviour, but it is only done to make them look great on paper, they seldom enforce these terms. John Masters, anti-spam activist and a dedicated supporter of Cyber Top Cops, sent me an e-mail the other day, suggesting that we should roll out penalties against people who use unprotected computers connected to the Internet. Although I realise the difficulty of getting something like this into place, I personally think it is a great idea and I wholeheartedly agree, but before we start to punish the user, start with the ISP for not taking action against the user.
It makes a lot of sense to fine people who use unprotected computers on the Internet. This is why I referred to the information superhighway earlier in this article. The Internet can be compared to a real highway, where several road safety rules apply. Driving on a highway with a vehicle that's not roadworthy does not only put your own safety at risk, but also the safety of other road users. If a traffic officer pulls you off the road and find that your vehicle is not roadworthy, you will most probably receive a fine (unless you bribe the traffic officer). If you continue to drive like this you may end up with a suspended driver's licence. The same principle applies to computer security. If you use an unprotected computer on the Internet you're not only putting your own safety at risk, but the safety of other Internet users as well. If your ISP becomes aware of the fact that you're connecting to the Internet without appropriate, up to date anti-malware software installed on your computer, you are supposed to be fined for putting the safety of all other Internet users at risk. They should suspend your services if you continue to connect to the Internet with an unprotected computer.
Your computer may be distributing malware, sending out spam, phishing e-mails and advance fee fraud scams. Your computer may even be used in Denial of Service attacks. So you end up becoming an accomplice in Internet crime. You unknowingly become a spammer, a scammer or a malware distributor. By using an unprotected computer you contribute to cyber crime instead of fighting it. That's not all, the malware may be monitoring your keystrokes, capturing everything you type, stealing passwords, e-mail addresses, account numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, names, telephone numbers, physical addresses... can you see where I'm going with this? These programs are able to compile a complete profile about yourself, this information is then transmitted back to the operator of the malware, who may use it to commit fraud in your name, in other words steal your identity. The perpetrator may even clean out your bank account, open credit cards or take out loans in your name and guess who is going to receive the bills at the end of the month, you!
What are the practical implications of implementing a penalty system for reckless Internet users? First of all, the ISP needs to have solid evidence, proving that the guilty party was really using an unprotected computer. Secondly, if the user had anti-malware software installed on his/her computer, the ISP needs to prove that the software was outdated. Finally, if the user had up to date anti-malware software installed, the ISP needs to prove that the software was not appropriate for preventing malware infections. This means that anti-malware software needs to comply with certain safety standards before they can be accepted as approved anti-malware solutions. This will effectively force all anti-malware developers to put their software through specific tests, conducted by a computer security standards authority. This will also cause anti-malware application prices to rise, which may pull the plug on the development of free anti-malware solutions, unless the developers certify these free applications as well. The ISP should use special software to check whether these approved anti-malware applications are installed on the client's computer. The software should send out several warnings to the clients who do not comply with these standards, giving them a reasonable amount of time to attend to the problems and providing detailed instructions on how to resolve them. Access to the Internet should only be terminated if the user fails to respond to these warnings.
Many people might ask, how should I update my anti-malware application if my Internet access is terminated? Your Internet access should only be terminated if you fail to respond to the warning notifications sent to you. If you end up with a terminated Internet access account, it means you ignored the notifications and you should have thought about the implications of your actions before you decided to ignore them. Other may claim that they are computer illiterate and cannot install software or keep them up to date. Most anti-malware applications update themselves and it does not take a rocket scientist to install them. With most of these installations you simply need to click on the "Next" button until you see a "Finish" button. If you can surf the Internet, then I'm sure you know how to click a button. I understand that not every Internet user is a computer expert, so if you find it difficult to install software, join an online forum like BleepingComputer.com, GeeksToGo.com or TechGuy.org and ask for assistance. It is extremely important to secure your computer before it gets infected with malware.
I just painted a pretty grim picture, didn't I? The burden placed on Internet Service Providers to check up on clients, to prove that clients are using unprotected computers, to penalise those who disobey the rules and to close down the accounts of regular offenders. Then there is the problem of high anti-malware prices and no more free anti-malware solutions for the people who cannot afford expensive anti-malware protection. But this is where the Internet is heading if we do not take action now. Online fraud is causing consumers to loose confidence in Internet shopping. Phishing scams are making users afraid of signing up for Internet banking services. People are weary of online payment and trading services like PayPal and eBay, no matter how safe they claim to be. Spammers are stealing bandwidth and the Internet user have to cough up for the costs. Expensive hardware and software is needed to fend off Denial of Service attacks. Malware is at the root of all these problems. It is the biggest contributor to cyber crime and eliminating malware is like removing a species from the food chain. This will be a big blow to spam and bot networks, resulting in less spam and phishing scams, fewer Denial of Service attacks and fewer stolen identities, passwords and credit card numbers. All the money saved through proper prevention of malware, including malware related problems like spam and Denial of Service attacks, can be utilised to build better protection against malware and assist companies to continue the development of free anti-malware solutions for home users.
So what is the bottom line? Internet Service Providers need to take responsibility for their networks. Customers are paying for Internet access, free from spam and malware attacks. It is the responsibility of the ISP to keep spam and malware infections within acceptable limits. Proper legislation needs to be put into place and governments need to take action against ISPs if they allow these threats to rise beyond acceptable limits. How do ISPs keep these threats within acceptable limits? Listen to the complaints sent through to your abuse departments, stop ignoring them, terminate the services of regular offenders and publish these actions for everyone to see. Make examples of those who do not want to listen and soon enough you will have people sticking to the rules. People will continue to do what they want if they know there is no punishment for their wrongdoing.
About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, providers of free malware removal assistance and helpful Internet security tips for the novice user. In the next instalment of the PC Security DIY article series, we will look at the foundation of Internet Security, using a secure browser and e-mail client and getting into safe browsing and e-mail reading habits.
More or less 3 weeks ago, several anti-scammer websites fell victim to DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks by the Storm botnet. The comments made on blogs and news sites about these attacks, made it clear once again that cyber security experts are well aware of the dangers of malware infections, which are the backbone of any botnet, as well as the impact these infections have on the online industry. The fact that security experts realise these problems is all good and well, but it does not really help addressing the problem. Normal computer users need to understand the implications of malware infections as well, but more importantly, they have to carry the consequences of their actions if they refuse to take appropriate preventative measures against malware.
Before we start, I would like to explain a couple of terms to users not familiar with DDoS attacks and botnets. A botnet is a network of software robots controlled remotely by crackers. A software robot in this specific case is a compromised computer, infected with specific malware types like Trojan horses and worms. A compromised computer is also called a "zombie computer". A botnet is therefore a collection of compromised or "zombie" computers. I am not going into the details of a DDoS attack, but a Denial of Service attack basically happens when a botnet sends thousands, even millions, of communication requests to a web server. This results in a bottleneck of incoming traffic, causing the server to crash, or making it so slow that it cannot serve the website to normal visitors anymore. An attack from a big botnet will therefore have a much larger impact on a web server than an attack from a smaller botnet. Okay, now that we have the jargon out of the way, lets delve deeper into the impact of malware infections on the Internet as a whole, but also for the individual Internet user.
The Internet is often referred to as the information superhighway. Off course the Internet as we know it today, is much more than just an information superhighway, the Internet has become a digital world where many offline tasks can be done online as well. You can work, play, recruit, date, shop, chat, watch TV, listen radio and do many other things online. But for the sake of this article I will stick to the term information superhighway, because the rules of the road fit perfectly in with what I want to illustrate. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that up to one quarter of all personal computers connected to the Internet, are part of a botnet. This estimate is not that hard to believe, I will even go so far to say that this figure may even be bigger than a quarter of the Internet's population, especially if you take into account the rate at which malware infections spread through the Internet. Ignorance plays a big role in malware infections, but don't leave negligence out of the equation. If it only stopped at ignorance and negligence, large and influential companies are able to address the problem, but they are unwilling to sacrifice profit for the safety of other Internet users.
Internet Service providers are in pole position to address the increasing threat of malware infections, the one thing that's making botnets grow larger and larger by the day. Unfortunately they are only interested in making money instead of providing a safe and quality service to their loyal and honest customers. No they would rather keep the clients distributing malware, sending out spam or taking part in Denial of Service attacks, because it means loss of revenue for them if they decide to suspend the services or terminate the accounts of these clients. Most ISPs will state in their Terms of Service that they do not tolerate this kind of behaviour, but it is only done to make them look great on paper, they seldom enforce these terms. John Masters, anti-spam activist and a dedicated supporter of Cyber Top Cops, sent me an e-mail the other day, suggesting that we should roll out penalties against people who use unprotected computers connected to the Internet. Although I realise the difficulty of getting something like this into place, I personally think it is a great idea and I wholeheartedly agree, but before we start to punish the user, start with the ISP for not taking action against the user.
It makes a lot of sense to fine people who use unprotected computers on the Internet. This is why I referred to the information superhighway earlier in this article. The Internet can be compared to a real highway, where several road safety rules apply. Driving on a highway with a vehicle that's not roadworthy does not only put your own safety at risk, but also the safety of other road users. If a traffic officer pulls you off the road and find that your vehicle is not roadworthy, you will most probably receive a fine (unless you bribe the traffic officer). If you continue to drive like this you may end up with a suspended driver's licence. The same principle applies to computer security. If you use an unprotected computer on the Internet you're not only putting your own safety at risk, but the safety of other Internet users as well. If your ISP becomes aware of the fact that you're connecting to the Internet without appropriate, up to date anti-malware software installed on your computer, you are supposed to be fined for putting the safety of all other Internet users at risk. They should suspend your services if you continue to connect to the Internet with an unprotected computer.
Your computer may be distributing malware, sending out spam, phishing e-mails and advance fee fraud scams. Your computer may even be used in Denial of Service attacks. So you end up becoming an accomplice in Internet crime. You unknowingly become a spammer, a scammer or a malware distributor. By using an unprotected computer you contribute to cyber crime instead of fighting it. That's not all, the malware may be monitoring your keystrokes, capturing everything you type, stealing passwords, e-mail addresses, account numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, names, telephone numbers, physical addresses... can you see where I'm going with this? These programs are able to compile a complete profile about yourself, this information is then transmitted back to the operator of the malware, who may use it to commit fraud in your name, in other words steal your identity. The perpetrator may even clean out your bank account, open credit cards or take out loans in your name and guess who is going to receive the bills at the end of the month, you!
What are the practical implications of implementing a penalty system for reckless Internet users? First of all, the ISP needs to have solid evidence, proving that the guilty party was really using an unprotected computer. Secondly, if the user had anti-malware software installed on his/her computer, the ISP needs to prove that the software was outdated. Finally, if the user had up to date anti-malware software installed, the ISP needs to prove that the software was not appropriate for preventing malware infections. This means that anti-malware software needs to comply with certain safety standards before they can be accepted as approved anti-malware solutions. This will effectively force all anti-malware developers to put their software through specific tests, conducted by a computer security standards authority. This will also cause anti-malware application prices to rise, which may pull the plug on the development of free anti-malware solutions, unless the developers certify these free applications as well. The ISP should use special software to check whether these approved anti-malware applications are installed on the client's computer. The software should send out several warnings to the clients who do not comply with these standards, giving them a reasonable amount of time to attend to the problems and providing detailed instructions on how to resolve them. Access to the Internet should only be terminated if the user fails to respond to these warnings.
Many people might ask, how should I update my anti-malware application if my Internet access is terminated? Your Internet access should only be terminated if you fail to respond to the warning notifications sent to you. If you end up with a terminated Internet access account, it means you ignored the notifications and you should have thought about the implications of your actions before you decided to ignore them. Other may claim that they are computer illiterate and cannot install software or keep them up to date. Most anti-malware applications update themselves and it does not take a rocket scientist to install them. With most of these installations you simply need to click on the "Next" button until you see a "Finish" button. If you can surf the Internet, then I'm sure you know how to click a button. I understand that not every Internet user is a computer expert, so if you find it difficult to install software, join an online forum like BleepingComputer.com, GeeksToGo.com or TechGuy.org and ask for assistance. It is extremely important to secure your computer before it gets infected with malware.
I just painted a pretty grim picture, didn't I? The burden placed on Internet Service Providers to check up on clients, to prove that clients are using unprotected computers, to penalise those who disobey the rules and to close down the accounts of regular offenders. Then there is the problem of high anti-malware prices and no more free anti-malware solutions for the people who cannot afford expensive anti-malware protection. But this is where the Internet is heading if we do not take action now. Online fraud is causing consumers to loose confidence in Internet shopping. Phishing scams are making users afraid of signing up for Internet banking services. People are weary of online payment and trading services like PayPal and eBay, no matter how safe they claim to be. Spammers are stealing bandwidth and the Internet user have to cough up for the costs. Expensive hardware and software is needed to fend off Denial of Service attacks. Malware is at the root of all these problems. It is the biggest contributor to cyber crime and eliminating malware is like removing a species from the food chain. This will be a big blow to spam and bot networks, resulting in less spam and phishing scams, fewer Denial of Service attacks and fewer stolen identities, passwords and credit card numbers. All the money saved through proper prevention of malware, including malware related problems like spam and Denial of Service attacks, can be utilised to build better protection against malware and assist companies to continue the development of free anti-malware solutions for home users.
So what is the bottom line? Internet Service Providers need to take responsibility for their networks. Customers are paying for Internet access, free from spam and malware attacks. It is the responsibility of the ISP to keep spam and malware infections within acceptable limits. Proper legislation needs to be put into place and governments need to take action against ISPs if they allow these threats to rise beyond acceptable limits. How do ISPs keep these threats within acceptable limits? Listen to the complaints sent through to your abuse departments, stop ignoring them, terminate the services of regular offenders and publish these actions for everyone to see. Make examples of those who do not want to listen and soon enough you will have people sticking to the rules. People will continue to do what they want if they know there is no punishment for their wrongdoing.
About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, providers of free malware removal assistance and helpful Internet security tips for the novice user. In the next instalment of the PC Security DIY article series, we will look at the foundation of Internet Security, using a secure browser and e-mail client and getting into safe browsing and e-mail reading habits.
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