Microsoft exec calls for internet quarantine in response to drastic times

Technology giant Microsoft wants to treat PCs infected with malware like they have the plague.

"Just as when an individual who is not vaccinated puts others' health at risk, computers that are not protected or have been compromised with a bot put others at risk and pose a greater threat to society," Scott Charney, corporate vice president for trustworthy computing at Microsoft, wrote in a recent company blog post.

Charney's proposal would ban PCs infected with malware from internet connectivity in an effort to prevent the spread of botnets to other devices on the web. While his proposal sounds radical, research supports it. A separate study showed disconnecting infected PCs from the top-50 internet networks could eliminate the spread of nearly half of all botnets, PC World reports. The process is feasible as well, as the news provider reports internet service providers have the resources to disconnect individual computers from their networks if they lack secure anti-malware protective measures.

The proposal comes at a time when national security, government infrastructure and energy grid technology have been threatened by malware attacks. According to Charney, drastic measures are required when even national defense systems are incapable of preventing cyber crime.

"Notwithstanding this emerging discussion, it appears to many people that neither governments nor industry are well-positioned to respond to this highly complex threat and that, from a policy and tactical perspective, there is considerable paralysis," Charney wrote.

Just as the World Health Organization calls for quarantine when human viruses rapidly spread throughout the population, such as the H1N1 virus or the Avian flu, MIcrosoft is positioning itself as the authority looking to eliminate the spread of computer viruses, such as Stuxnet or Zeus.

"In the physical world, international, national and local health organizations identify, track and control the spread of disease which can include, where necessary, quarantining people to avoid the infection of others," Charney said. "Simply put, we need to improve and maintain the health of consumer devices connected to the internet in order to avoid greater societal risk."

The announcement is a sign of the progress malware has made on an international scale. As botnets are designed to discretely spread through networks of devices, destroying hardware and stealing money along the way, cutting off infected devices instills a barrier between malware and uninfected computers. The call to isolate infected devices, and cut off computer viruses before they can infect others connected to the web, will put more emphasis on secure anti-malware software.

While Microsoft's proposal is unlikely, it highlights the importance on updating to the latest protective software solutions. The quarantine would deny internet access to machines that fail to update their protective solutions, implying the importance of anti-malware software to security across the entire internet.