Both the U.S. government and the country’s internet service providers (ISP) agree that botnets are among the greatest threats facing Web users.
But they can’t yet agree on what to do about it, because the ISPs aren’t exactly the biggest fans of a government document calling for them to establish voluntarily, industry-wide standards for detecting and fighting threats.
That was the major, unfortunate conclusion that came out of a contentious panel discussion on Tuesday featuring the White House cyber security coordinator, cyber experts at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Commerce and an ISP industry trade representative.
The U.S. government defines botnets as collections of compromised computers that are remotely controlled by a malevolent party. The networks are often used to launch crippling attacks against third parties online.
A recent study by Microsoft found the U.S. leads the world in terms of the number of computers infected with botnet malware, 2.2 million, compared to second-place Brazil’s 500,000. Globally, McAfee reported in late 2010 that it was seeing an average of 6 million new botnet infections every month.
From TPM IdeaLab at http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/the-government-and-isps-cant-agree-what-to-do-about-botnets.php?ref=fpblg