FTC Seeks to Cut off PC Zombies

On Tuesday, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that it would ask 3,000 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to turn off Internet access to customers who have not protected their PCs against viruses and other electronic attacks. Such PCs are often taken over by hackers and used as "zombies" which are then used in distributed electronic attacks and spam mass mailing campaigns, the FTC says. Currently, the FTC can't force any of the ISPs to comply with this request, but they hope that some will do so voluntarily. To get the movement started, the FTC says that it will begin identifying zombie PCs and revealing them to their ISPs. Sounds like a plan.