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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Internet service providers told communications regulators on Thursday that they will do more to alert customers whose computers have been taken over by criminal hackers' robot networks, or botnets, and help them get rid of the malicious software.

Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), CenturyLink (CTL.N) and some small Internet service providers, or ISPs, already contact customers whose computers have software surreptitiously installed so they are roped into botnets, a collection of affected computers.

A single hacker can remotely control thousands of machines, using them to send spam aimed at stealing personal or financial data.

Policymakers are eager to get industry more involved in policing botnets and preventing security problems from slowing the growth of the Internet market, worth about $8 trillion a year.

But most ISPs do not warn customers whose computers are in botnets because the effort is expensive and some customers may regard the monitoring as a violation of their privacy.

Following a firm push from the Federal Communications Commission, eight large ISPs in an industry working group told the FCC on Thursday that they would not only work to detect botnets on their networks, but would also help affected customers find resources to clean up their computers.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the working group had identified "smart, practical, voluntary solutions that are consistent with these principles, will materially improve our cybersecurity."

The companies announced two other steps on Thursday.

They also said they would implement a more secure version of the website naming system, called DNSSEC, to prevent thieves from posing as a bank, for example, by using a similar domain name to steal money from its customers.

They also pledged to take steps to ensure that Web traffic goes through the shortest and most reliable routes. The goal would be to prevent a repeat of a 2010 incident in which some 15 percent of Internet traffic was diverted through Chinese servers for about 18 minutes.

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FCC, Internet providers pledge anti-botnet effort