Thread: Microsoft Wants Internet Usage Tax

...and they also want to import more H-1B Visas to throw more Americans out of work.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... _computers


Microsoft's security chief suggests 'Net tax to clean computers
Robert McMillan

March 2, 2010 (IDG News Service) How will we ever get a leg up on hackers who are infecting computers worldwide? Microsoft's security chief laid out several suggestions today, including a possible Internet usage tax to pay for the inspection and quarantine of machines.

Most hacked PCs run Microsoft's Windows operating system, and the company has invested millions in trying to fight the problem.

Microsoft recently used the court system to shut down the Waledac botnet, introducing a new tactic in the battle against hackers. Speaking at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney said that the technology industry needs to think about more "social solutions."

That means fighting the bad guys at several levels, he said. "Just like we do defense in depth in IT, we have to do defense in depth in [hacking] response."

"I actually think the health care model ... might be an interesting way to think about the problem," Charney said. With diseases, there are education programs, but there are also social programs to check people for disease and quarantine the sick.

This model could work to fight computer viruses, too, he said. When a computer user allows malware to run on his computer, "you're not just accepting it for yourself, you're contaminating everyone around you," he said.

The idea that Internet service providers might somehow step up in the fight against malware is not new. The problem, however, is cost.

Customer calls already eat into service provider profits. Adding quarantine and malware-fixing costs to that would be prohibitive, said Danny McPherson, chief research officer with Arbor Networks, via instant message. "They have no incentive to do anything today."

So who would foot the bill? "Maybe markets will make it work," Charney said. But an Internet usage tax might be the way to go. "You could say it's a public safety issue and do it with general taxation," he said.

According to Microsoft, there are 3.8 million infected botnet computers worldwide, 1 million of which are in the U.S. They are used to steal sensitive information and send spam and were a launching point for 190,000 distributed denial-of-service attacks in 2008.


[If we bailed out the billionaire bankers for their mistakes, why not bail out Bill Gates for his mistakes? It's just tax money which we citizens are powerless to stop...]

Let's see. This is coming very close to blackmail and extortion. I really don't want MS mucking around in my computers, and I am really tired of talking to India every time I have a question about one of their products. Too many questions, if my allowable free calls have run out is to give them a credit card number before I get an answer, and half the time they do not really know what I am talking about.
These people really need to get off their high horse and start addressing customer service, rather than interfering with those (like me) who innocently have purchased their platform.

How about we raise taxes on Microsoft.

Originally Posted by bigtex

How about we raise taxes on Microsoft.

How about not spending any more money on Microsoft products...

Kathyet

This will not happen. There have been plenty of times this has been brought up, and Ballmer at MS has shot it down. This is why I will never purchase or own an Apple product. Steve Jobs is as crazy Charney and he is actually implementing his crazy ideas and forcing them onto the consumers. MS is open so you have tons of choices.

Originally Posted by DarthIllegal

This will not happen. There have been plenty of times this has been brought up, and Ballmer at MS has shot it down. This is why I will never purchase or own an Apple product. Steve Jobs is as crazy Charney and he is actually implementing his crazy ideas and forcing them onto the consumers. MS is open so you have tons of choices.

We just bought an apple because .. we got tired of the H1B1 visas and just plan tired of the Microsoft bull crap.....

so much for that idea but we do like the Apple

Kathyet

I have worked on Apple platforms and they performed beautifully, and were not that susceptible to hackers and viruses as Microsoft. Unfortunately, I am beholden to talking to India with these home computers (Apples were too expensive at the time.)
I have never, ever used a search engine like bing, which appeared one day out of nowhere. And it irritates me to no end that when I do sign onto the Internet from the newer computer, I get a huge block telling me to download the latest Microsoft toolbar. I really don't want to download anything!

vortex,

I had the bing stuff show up out of nowhere after my last windows update. I keep getting this darn google / youtube Chrome advertisement which says it's supposed to be better than the average browser, and I too have the same problem with keeping these popups from doing that. Even though I have popup manager set to the highest settings as I loathe popups.

But the bing and chrome advertisements keep making it through.

Maybe Fedora (Linux) is a better choice for PC operating systems.

don't like ms communist ways? but don't like apple.... go Linux! we have used Linux for over 10 years. it is excellent and ... free.