Telstra to supress malware on BigPond

Telstra will add DNS-based malware suppression to the BigPond network this October, becoming the first ISP in Australia to deploy the technology, the telco has announced.

The technology, which is already used in North America and Europe, is a network feature that prevents computers and devices infected with botnet malware to communicate with their command-and-control servers.

Computers send DNS requests whenever a user connects to a website. BigPond’s new suppression feature will flag DNS requests to known command-and-control servers as unusual and stop the connection before it can be made, Telstra revealed in a blog post today.

Telstra said the network tool would not collect any personal information, including which websites BigPond customers are visiting.

“Because the malware suppression technology only observes DNS queries and not internet traffic, no internet search history, browsing data or any other customer data is recorded, retained or sent to a third party,” Telstra said.

Telstra previously received controversy for a network management trial in Victoria that uses peer-to-peer throttling in an attempt to reign in congestion. Consumer advocacy group, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), had voiced privacy concerns that the network technology involved could result in “intrusive monitoring” of consumers.

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