Virus-throttling: routers can keep malefactors *in* as well as out

Virus-throttling is a technique whereby routers analyze hosts inside their network and attempt to spot machines that are making outbound connections in a fashion consistent with virus activity. These hosts are then throttled with respect to how many other hosts they can contact over time, Early lab results from HP are promising, with a marked slowdown in the spread of malware, but I have to wonder how smart the router is — are promiscuous IMmers and file-sharers, nstat-using security testers and swarm-downloading users going to end up throttled, too? Also, I wonder to what extent this is an attempt to prop up companies like Cisco, whose proprietary software lets them sell their product at a signficant markup, a margin that's threatened by a variety of open-source routing tech startups who run on commodity hardware.

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