Network security counter-attack

Apparently, it's against computer security laws to perform counter-attacks on people who try to attack your network. I think that, not only should it be legal, it should be considered a moral imperative, within certain limitations. We should apply similar laws to counter-attacks that we do to defending one's self in the physical world; use of excessive force like wiping their hard drive is illegal, but a counterattack to merely disable/disinfect the computer is okay.

The fact that we can't do anything to counter-attack botnets only facilitates extreme growth and increase in power and resources available to their operators. If every computer on an ISP was watching out for damaged computers and would immediately attack them to remove their ability to spread the virus, it'd be a lot more difficult for viruses to spread.

Although given botnet authors determination, perhaps we'd end up with the computer equivelant of a superbug ... like iMRSA or something, and be unable to kill it. :)