On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Petri Helenius wrote:
I see this as a two different processes. There are definetly some individuals who have no help whatsoever with their computers and need the abuse/helpdesk to walk them through the disinfecting process.
Gartner estimates the total cost of ownership of a PC at $450/month. If someone is paying $50/month, I wonder where the other $400 goes? Is it marketing suicide in other industries have premium customer programs. Pay more or have a better credit rating, and you get a platinum credit card. Fly more or pay more and you get to sit in first class and board the plan first. Why not have special IP addresses reserved for the Internet "elite?" ISPs are desperately looking for new revenue streams. Would you pay an extra $50/month for "platinum-level" Internet address? ARIN could charge extra to certify those ISPs receiving platinum Internet addresses. Mass mailers already pay companies like Habeas and IronPort for "bonded" e-mail. Suppose we create Internet++ using 126/8 as the starting IP address block. Only ISPs agreeing to the good code of conduct could use 126/8 addresses assigned independently of any other IP addresses in use. ISPs might reserve 126/8 addresses to only a few of their most secure servers, and a few very trusted customers. If it was successfull, IANA could extend the range to 125/8, 124/8 and so on
However in my experience these are only a small fraction of the population with infected machines. It really solves 90%+ of the problem by just getting the message to the individual that they have a problem and they´ll find somebody to fix it for them.
Doubtful. If you look at large samples, e.g. 10,000 infected computers, the repair rate is essentially identical between a group told their computers are infected and a group which wasn't told. Perhaps more scary, the rate of repair after being notified doesn't change whether the group are self-described "computer experts" or "general users." I expect every NANOG conference from now on will be filled with announcements asking people to please fix their computers because worms are killing the network. NANOG has less than 500 attendees, yet has about the same number as infected computers as any other ad-hoc network population.