Newsfactor.com reports that the proposed Australian cybersecurity solution in which internet service providers would alert customers if their computers are infected, and access be limited until the problem is fixed, is being reviewed by the U.S government.

The Obama administration is keen to implement the Australian protocols, but are wary of privacy and civil liberty concerns over internet monitoring and regulation.

Possibilities being explored by the White House include enabling customers to get warnings from their Internet providers if their computer gets taken over by hackers through a botnet.  The U.S is wary of going too far, so are not implementing the part of the Australian plan which allows internet service providers to limit or cut off usage if their customers do not sort out the infected computers, as this is likely to trigger too much opposition.

In reflection of the competitive nature of Americans, Prescott Winter of the National Security Agency says that “I think that, quite frankly, there will be other governments who will finally say, at least for their parts of the Internet, as the Australians have apparently done, we think we can do better.”