With a new breed of virulent viruses such as Code Red and Nimda, the repercussions of end users not patching their computers has begun to spiral almost out of control - with Code Red estimated to have cost companies around the world US$2.6 billion.
Whilst not widely publicised, some local ISPs have already made the move to disconnect customers whose systems have become infected, although not all Australian service providers have felt the need to move down this path.
When asked if Telstra suspended infected user accounts, spokesperson Stuart Gray said: -We've done that in the past," adding that the telco giant saw about 300 user accounts disconnected as a result of Code Red.
"It's not a punishment," Gray said. -We do it to protect the customer as much as protecting ourselves."
According to Gray, Telstra will e-mail information about virus patches to customers and make attempts to contact them before disconnection.
Australia's second largest ISP OzEmail monitors Internet traffic that seems excessive -- -whether that be a result of user spamming or unintentional e-mail issuing as a result of viruses," - and does take offending users offline, according to spokesperson David Bathur.
"At the end of the day, security is the end-user's responsibility," Bathur said, adding that OzEmail does take steps to educate subscribers.
Whilst the service provider's user policy and acceptable usage indicates non-spamming practices, Bathur said OzEmail was not about to issue a widespread policy on the practice of disconnecting virus-infected users.
If a user's system is shooting off an enormous amount of e-mails, OzEmail prevents outgoing e-mail and contacts the customer, Bathur said. -It's something we're particularly vigilant about."
AOL said it was not aware that it had administered such practices. -We're confident we have adequate technology in place to protect our infrastructure," a spokesperson said.
iPrimus said it doesn't disconnect infected users but will block outgoing e-mails via proxy servers, and Dingo blue -- which uses Optus's network - said Oputs doesn't have any virus or Trojan filtering or scanning of incoming or outgoing e-mails on its platform - -so that would be the same for all Optus ISPs," a spokesperson said.
Optus was the only service provider contacted by ZDNet Australia that declined to discuss the matter.
I have sent over 5 emails to iPrimus about a user that is sending out virus emails but I havent even got a reply from them after a week so I cant really see them doing anything about it!!