German Gov't to Create Free, Public Malware Removal Service

Posted 12/14/2009 at 2:23pm | by Bart Salisbury

0

Comments

Print

Malware is no easy thing to get rid of--bandwidth-hogging botnets in particular. One small chink in Internet security armor is all it takes for malware to thrive. Recognizing that no one entity can combat malware alone, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the Association of the German Internet Industry (eco), and German Internet service providers (ISPs) have come together to establish a malware clean-up helpline for Germany.

The three groups will work together to identify malware and remove it from the system. ISPs will be on the frontline, hunting down infected computers. ISPs will inform the owner of a machine suspected of infection, and direct her to a website with information on how to cleanse her computer. If the website’s advice doesn’t resolve the problem, the computer owner will be directed to a call center where realtime help will be available.

Germany’s need for the service is a great one indeed. Germany ranks third on the international scale for the number of infected computers. This new venture, according to eco, has raised safety awareness among German computer users. With the addition of professional support to remove malware, eco hopes to see Germany out of the top ten.

Image Credit: SPACEBAR.ca/Flickr