Microsoft exec pitches Internet usage tax to pay for cybersecurity programs

I see this as big a deal to stop a the PHONY Health Plan & Cap and Trade.

We need to band together regardless of Party affiliation and nip this in the bud.

I for one don't need a higher cost of anything.

The up coming massive taxes are going to be more than enough to last a life time.

Microsoft makes enough profit to build better security into it's software without gouging us for more. Bill Gates has enough money to last 100 life times.

Just say not Microsoft taxes!

Microsoft exec pitches Internet usage tax to pay for cybersecurity programs - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

By Tony Romm - 03/03/10 11:26 AM ET
A top Microsoft executive on Tuesday suggested a broad Internet tax to help defray the costs associated with computer security breaches and vast Internet attacks, according to reports.

Speaking at a security conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney pitched the Web usage fee as one way to subsidize efforts to combat emerging cyber threats -- a costly venture, he said, but one that had vast community benefits.

"You could say it's a public safety issue and do it with general taxation," Charney noted.

Ultimately, Charney was only offering one suggestion during the RSA security conference; not a precise policy prescription.

But his idea has already riled many in the computer world, some of whom have since charged Microsoft and its historically vulnerable Windows operating system are responsible for countless, worldwide cybersecurity problems.


Still, Charney implored those in his own industry to focus more on "social solutions" to growing Internet security concerns. He described the importance of cybersecurity in terms of national healthcare, noting that computer ailments and hacks, like preventable diseases, travel to and incapacitate other, connected units -- not just the infected user's home computer.


"Just like we do defense in depth in IT, we have to do defense in depth in... response," he later added.

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All we need is to disallow EULA's from disallowing damage claims due to product deficiency if the product is paid for (non free programs). Of course we would need reasonable civil damage caps.

That will force companies like SUN and MS to upgrade the security in their languages.

No, Microsoft, you can't have a bailout.

Deuce said:

No, Microsoft, you can't have a bailout.

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They don't need one.

Microsoft profit beats on strong Windows 7 sales | Reuters

Don't you think that if a drug company puts out a drug that costs lives or a food company puts out hamburger contaminated with E. coli they should be held accountable?

The same should go for any Software company that creates a product allows for cyber attacks that cost the public for costly repairs?

Why should we have to pay a tax to cover their mistakes?

I see this as just plain wrong and back as-wards.

Councilman said:

Don't you think that if a drug company puts out a drug that costs lives or a food company puts out hamburger contaminated with E. coli they should be held accountable?

The same should go for any Software company that creates a product allows for cyber attacks that cost the public for costly repairs?

Why should we have to pay a tax to cover their mistakes?

I see this as just plain wrong and back as-wards.

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Oh I bet it will worm its way into some of the congressmen on some sort of national security grounds. Especially some of the older congressmen who don't really understand computers and just regurgitate what their lobbyists say. See: McCain's "Internet Censorship Freedom Act."

Areopagitican said:

"The Equalization of People's Online Security Inequality Freedom-America-Patriot Security Bill"

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Add "For Freedom" on the end!

Actual text of bill:

"No person may access any internet website not approved by Internet Security Committee."

megaprogman said:

All we need is to disallow EULA's from disallowing damage claims due to product deficiency if the product is paid for (non free programs). Of course we would need reasonable civil damage caps.

That will force companies like SUN and MS to upgrade the security in their languages.

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The caps should only be effective when a private citizen challenges another and when a business attacks a citizen.

Citizen vs big business = skys the limit.

Deuce said:

Add "For Freedom" on the end!

Actual text of bill:

"No person may access any internet website not approved by Internet Security Committee."

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"The Equalization of People's Online Security Inequality Freedom-America-Patriot Security for Freedom Bill"

Two freedoms. Done.

Areopagitican said:

"The Equalization of People's Online Security Inequality Freedom-America-Patriot Security for Freedom Bill"

Two freedoms. Done.

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Clearly anyone who votes against this is an America-hating traitor.

Deuce said:

Clearly anyone who votes against this is an America-hating traitor.

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Freedom-hating. Don't confine it to just "america". This **** is worldwide.

We should all boycott Microsoft until they can the idiot who made the remarks in question.

Vader said:

We should all boycott Microsoft until they can the idiot who made the remarks in question.

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But then I wouldn't be able to post at work, as my work comp and most of the other comps in this workplace use MS products...

They're EVERYWHERE!!!111

Everything will collapse if we boycott Microsoft. :shock:

Vader said:

We should all boycott Microsoft until they can the idiot who made the remarks in question.

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Better yet, we won't need a tax if people just stopped using crappy Microsoft software. Move to Mac or Linux and cyber security issues dwindle to a low simmer. I find it interesting that Microsoft is the major cause of cyber security problems and they support a tax to help pay for their **** ups. Nice.

Ockham said:

Better yet, we won't need a tax if people just stopped using crappy Microsoft software. Move to Mac or Linux and cyber security issues dwindle to a low simmer. I find it interesting that Microsoft is the major cause of cyber security problems and they support a tax to help pay for their **** ups. Nice.

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Not to mention that they are better systems anyway.....

On a side note, Microsoft ran a full page ad, proclaiming there should be no more delays on building the Al Rossellini floating bridge.....
I think they should pay for it, if they want to get started right away....
I'm just tired of special interest groups dictating how I should live my life while I'm the one paying the bills.......:soap

Microsoft's reputation for good products can be expressed mathematically:

Bloated crapware = Internet explorer

Want to know why Microsoft's products have so many security holes in them, and bug fixes are on an almost daily basis? The answer is MFC, otherwise known as Microsoft Foundation Classes. These are standard objects that Microsoft incorporates into EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT they produce.

You can be CERTIFIED in MFC (Yes, Virginia, certifications are available), thus showing your proficiency as a programmer, and you can still turn out crapware. Why? Let me give you an analogy:

Suppose you have all the parts to build a boat. You are good at building boats, but now, someone wants you to build a car. Of course, all you have on hand are boat parts. So you use an anchor for a steering wheel, the little rubber wheels on the boat trailer as wheels for the car, your engine is an Evinrude, and your car has a pair of oars for the brakes..... Getting my drift?

It's the same with software. MFCs are put together so the code can be quickly written and gotten to market, but there is only so much optimization you can do with your programs written using MFCs. In Microsoft's "one size fits all" world of object oriented programming, a class can be created that inherits ALL the properties of a MFC, and adapted for a use other than was originally intended, yet carries all the excess baggage of the MFC that is never used, and THAT is the problem.

In the end, your program hogs resources, takes up too much memory, has memory leaks, and is VERY VERY SLOW, much like............

Internet Explorer, which is crapware, for the very reason I stated above. Want to benchmark and compare Internet Explorer with Firefox or Opera? Feel free to, and you will find out, as many already have, that both alternative browsers run rings around Internet Explorer. Neither uses Microsoft foundation classes either.

And now, Microsoft wants to tax the rest of us for its own **** ups, because they chose to be lazy and cut corners on product development? Yea, right. Not on this planet, and not even in their wildest hallucinations, will this ever happen.