Australians would be unable to access the internet without having anti-virus and firewall programs installed and a virus-free machine under a new plan put forward by a year-long parliamentary cyber-crime inquiry.

A prominent cyber-security consultant, Alastair MacGibbon, who is a former director of the AFP's Australian High Tech Crime Centre and eBay's former security chief, has called for the proposal to be taken a step further by forcing ISPs to monitor the security of users' machines and block them from connecting if their browsers, security and operating system software are not up to standard.

But Peter Coroneos, chief executive of the Internet Industry Association (IIA), has questioned whether such ideas are practical and says the government would not be able to enforce the content of ISPs' contractual relationships with customers.

Other recommendations put forward in the report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications - titled Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime - include the establishment of an Office of Online Security and 24-hour hotline where people could report cyber crime without having to go to a police station.

It also suggests a mandatory obligation on ISPs to inform users when their machines are infected and, if necessary, disconnect them from the internet until the affected machine is fixed.