Virgin Media will notify Malware Victims

The leading cable and fibre optic broadband internet provider operating in the United Kingdom, Virgin Media has made a refreshing announcement that it would be starting to notify its customers when they fall to the attack of malware. The ISP will be contacting the malware-infected customers by mail, suggesting free security checks and the malware removal service operated by the ISP itself.

Virgin Media's executive director for broadband, Jon James said that they were writing to their customers that were suspected to be infected by malware, encouraging them to check and engage an up-to-date security package for their computers, besides offering advice on free and simple methods to disinfect their system. According to the ISP one of the good security packages available was the Virgin Media Security.

The internet service provider has revealed that security organisations working on behalf of the government and banking sectors already provided details to it on the spread of malware infections. Virgin Media will be using this data for alerting customers it believed were running infected computers.

Virgin Media also estimated that about 25 per cent of the complaints received by it were realted to connection speed caused by malware infections. It is understood that the immediate cause of the malware education initiative was the incident where the Zeus v3 trojan caused the loss of GBP 675,000 form the online customers of a UK bank.

A more forceful and rigorous "walled garden" approach has been recommended by the authorities in Australia to tackle malware infections, which could even cut off a customer from a network with a view to keep the rest safe. However, last year a industry code of conduct was drafted by the Internet Industry Association, proposing that a customer infected by malware must be contacted by the concerned provider.

PIC Credit L Paperina

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