Microsoft Wants Internet Tax to Keep PCs Clean

[exfileme]

Healthcare reform for PCs.

Microsoft Wants Internet Tax to Keep PCs Clean : Read more

 

[shin0bi272]

Yeah cause tax and spend worked so well for greece huh? They just raised their sales tax to 21% (from 19) and they even said it wont help the debt theyre in.

 

[griffed88]

this is rediculous, Microsoft is responsible for security holes in their OS, not the public.

 

[Guest]

Maybe if M$ would fix their holes, we wouldn't need to tax the users . . . who already pay for the vulnerable OS

 

[brother shrike]

Yeah, make me pay to help the people who have no idea how to use a computer and are infected with 10+ viruses.

 

[dman3k]

Not being a M$ fanboy, but the fact that M$ has way less holes than most other major players like Apple, Adobe, Google, and Mozilla is often overlooked.

It's just that they have the largest market. Do you really want "security by obscurity" ?

 

[restatement3dofted]

[citation][nom]Shin0bi272[/nom]Yeah cause tax and spend worked so well for greece huh? They just raised their sales tax to 21% (from 19) and they even said it wont help the debt theyre in.[/citation]
Did you even read the article? The purpose of this particular tax is to fund the specific program discussed, not to generate revenue or combat debt. There's a pretty significant difference between an increase in a national sales tax, and a limited-purpose tax on a particular item or service.

[citation][nom]griffed88[/nom]this is rediculous, Microsoft is responsible for security holes in their OS, not the public.[/citation]
Security experts tend to agree that recent incarnations are generally the most secure operating systems available. The problem is that market share causes a much higher number of people to target the system's users. It seems unlikely that a perfect system will ever be designed; as the saying goes, "where there's a will, there's a way." People that want to attack these systems will always find a way around the security measures put in place. Blaming Microsoft for viruses and malware is ignorant.

That said, is this proposal a good idea? Who knows. Clearly there is still a big issue with software security, and it would be beneficial to try and find some way to combat it. At least Microsoft is coming up with ideas, unlike you guys who just sit here spewing the same tired lines about how everything is Microsoft's fault.

 

[darknova_]

and what about all those people that know how to use a computer and dont get virus' clean there own computer's when they have a virus

 

[cloakster]

lol, even now people hate the Anti-virus's that the ISP's give for free so why do they think that people will pay for that crap. These are the top execs for handling the internet security problems, you would think they would be a little smarter than this.

 

[falchard]

It would be an interesting plan for webhosts. If your website has a virus or trojan, IE automatically blocks the site until its fixed.

 

[restatement3dofted]

Sigh.

[citation][nom]Restatement3dOfTed[/nom]Security experts tend to agree that recent incarnations [of Windows] are generally the most secure operating systems available...[/citation]

 

[jellico]

This is wrong on so many levels. First and foremost ENOUGH WITH THE TAXES ALREADY! Second, if it were possible to accurately monitor for "sick" computers from the Internet or even ISP level, it would be possible to prevent malware proliferation in the first-place. Unfortunately, such magic code doesn't exist. Third, any system that can be designed to prevent access (quarantine) to the Internet by a "sick" system, can be corrupted or co-opted by malicious actors to do something unintended, and likely far worse. Finally, this Vice President for Trustworthy Computing, at Microsoft, should be immediately fired for incompetence, since he clearly doesn't know what the hell he is talking about.

 

[roborabbit]

Instead of all this how about requiring isps to include hardwalls in the modems / equipment that they "rent" to subscribers? Would be much more effective and the isps could routinely update & flash the firmware like they allready do with modems.

 

[Guest]

No microsoft, stealing, I mean taxing isp clients like us is not the way to go. This is not our war.

 

[bunz_of_steel]

I agree IBoNIHs272 why should we have to pay top $$ for a OS that is already broken out of the box?? Fix your own product M$ and STFU

 

[cheepstuff]

I never thought this would turn into a capitalism vs. socialism kind of thing like the health-care thing in the US. There are already AV alternatives (capitalistic method) you can buy that are comparable if not better than a remote system net (socialistic method).
Most viruses convince the user to download something making it entirely their fault if they are infected. Additionally, it is not like an epidemic because other people still have to fall for it the same way, downloading stuff. A virus is not something that can instantly infect your computer if your friend gets one, and therefore, you should not have to pay money to make up for your friends sloppiness.
the remaining viruses out there that infect by exploit are steadily being patched by microsoft. microsoft should not be given money for the holes in their OS because it is their and only their responsibility to provide a patch for their product.

 

[Bolbi]

"Hands off my internet", anyone? How many people have (computer) viruses just isn't the government's business. It's the user's problem; let them take care of it (or ask for help from us here on THF, lol)!

 

[roborabbit]

Honestly, if it was anyone but M$ suggesting this I doubt people would be reacting this harshly. The internet is a communal resource and needs some protection just like anyother resource (ie, water, oil, gas, and people(yes people are a resource)). However, the hard part is deciding what it needs "protection" from and how to go about it. What's best? A regulatory committee like the FCC?(shudders) An "Internet Awareness" initiative? Or something effective like requiring ISPs to offer (or atleast inform customers of threats) ways to protect themselves from viruses/malware etc? I agree that a general tax is not the way to go about this but the most effective way circumvent virus/malware infection would be through the ISPs (whether it's free software or knowledge). For one, the infrastructure for this is allready inplace. Honestly, the easiest thing to do would be to require ISPs to hand out pamphlets on internet threats & security when they install the service.(Something eye-catching and frightening, ie big red letters reading "WARNING: YOU ARE NOW CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET, YOU HAVE NOW BEEN WITH EVERY USER THE INTERNET HAS EVER COME INTO CONTACT WITH.") Either that or we could just hand it over to the government to deal with. Someone has to and it's either going to be the government or the ISPs.

 

[victomofreality]

Monitor our computer and quarantine them if theres malware... and who's definition of malware are we going by? Oops you have pirated software on your computer must be malware-quarantine. Downloading music probably has malware-quarantine. This makes me sick.

 

[shakari]

Would this tax effect only people who use MS os's, or every single internet user, be it on linux, mac os x, cell phones, or anything else that is webcapable (tv's, fridges, even toasters?!!).

It sound rediculous really, currently most antivirus companies have problems keeping up with just windows xp, vista and 7, some do also do antivirus for macs, but thats not many. It would be near imposible to create an antivirus program for the many different linux distributions out there.

An internet tax isnt needed as we allready have one in the form of isp charges, and the majority of them allready do all the can to help out with security mesaures by offering free packages, offering tutorials about how to stay safe etc on the net. Its just not feasable and just sounds like a big money grab by MS. Not to mention that even if they were able to impliment something like this it creates one big target for hackers to target, and really helps them.