FTC plans spam "zombie" crackdown: a good idea? [sp]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: May 24, 2005 8:53:29 AM EDT
To: politech () politechbot com
Subject: [Politech] FTC plans spam "zombie" crackdown: a good idea? [sp]




http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-5715633.html

Feds to fight the zombies
May 23, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

Remote-controlled "zombie" networks operated by bottom-feeding  
spammers have become a serious problem that requires more industry  
action, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to announce on Tuesday.

The FTC and more than 30 of its counterparts abroad are planning to  
contact Internet service providers and urge them to pay more  
attention to what their customers are doing online. Among the  
requests: identifying customers with suspicious e-mailing patterns,  
quarantining those computers and offering help in cleaning the zombie  
code off the hapless PCs.

To be sure, computers infected by zombie programs and used to churn  
out spam are a real threat to the future of e-mail. One report by  
security company Sophos found that compromised PCs are responsible  
for 40 percent of the world's spam--and that number seems to be  
heading up, not down.

But government pressure--even well-intentioned--on Internet providers  
to monitor their users raises some important questions.

[...remainder snipped...]
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