[If you still distribute any kind of software kits that do not install FireFox, you are doing your customers a disservice and making your detection and blocking task that much bigger. When you contact customers with compromised machines you might want to make it mandatory to install Firefox from your servers before re-enabling Internet access]
Agree, and disagree.
Yes, it certainly does not apply to everyone.
So you push them to Firefox anyway, what now, there are still countless amounts of vulnerabilities for FF many not even seen.
I was actually targeting this suggestion to those who currently distribute Internet Explorer kits. So it was more of a suggestion to not distribute the browser that is most vulnerable. And if you make installation of Firefox a requirement to come out of quarantine, that does not imply that people need to uninstall their other browsers. This is to give them the experience of something new knowing that a certain percentage will continue using it and not be reinfected. And reducing reinfections cuts your costs of detection and blocking compromised PCs.
Are you suggesting that if peers don't clean up their act they should be de-peered?
That's pretty extreme. I would think that you could start by keeping regular communication with them and always showing reports about how much bad traffic comes from them versus how much comes from you. Or how many compromised hosts are in their AS versus in yours. You could share what you have learned about detection and blocking of compromised computers and the resulting reduction in helpdesk calls. In other words, if there is a problem, discuss it, make it clear how you are doing a better job than they are, and how the term "peering" refers to two companies who are equals by some measure. And how the peer is lacking by certain malware measures. In many cases, repeated communication will lead to people fixing problems, even if you have to wait until it filters up to a level where management says "What if our peers start depeering because of these problems? Go fix them!". Engineers like to figure out everything to the nth detail and cost it all out. But that's not the only way to get action. --Michael Dillon