Is the AV industry showing signs of exasperation at users’ apathy?

I wrote about the March 8 deadline for remaining DNSChanger victims to get clean or lose their internet in Infosecurity Magazine: DNSChanger poses a new threat to its victims.

But I had two late comments from anti-virus people currently in the States and separated by the trans-Atlantic time difference. They both echo Graham Cluley of Sophos’ comment that “if this is the only way to wake the affected users into sorting out the problem, so be it.”

Panda Labs’ Luis Corrons used remarkably similar language. “At least this will make affected people react and secure their computers,” he told me.

And ESET’s David Harley said, “Pragmatically, I don’t have a problem with this: law enforcement doesn’t have a specific responsibility for maintaining service for infected machines.”

But reading between the lines, I suspect that any anger is really directed not at the infected users being apathetic with their own security, but that the nature of the infection makes further infection likely. Such users are being apathetic with other users’ security; and that’s really not on.