ISP shuts out infected customers

Australia's biggest ISP has a radical cure for infected PCs on its networks: Cut 'em off.

Battered by attacks on its domain name servers, BigPond has taken the unusual step of temporarily disconnecting customers believed to have compromised computers, reports News.com sister site ZDNet Australia. These Trojan-carrying PCs are the source of the fake DNS requests that have overwhelmed BigPond's network, blocking Web site views and holding up e-mail delivery, the ISP believes.

The lockout is a move that few service providers have dared to take, despite its effectiveness. Many companies don't want to run the risk of alienating the punters who pay the bills. But as security becomes more of a concern, both for regular folks and for federal bodies, it could be a sign of what's to come. In a few years, dumping rotten systems could become standard practice for ISPs.