Microsoft VP Calls for Internet Tax

Ok, so here it is. Scott Charney, Microsoft's vice president for trustworthy computing, during a speech at a security convention in San Francisco recently called for levying an Internet tax on Americans to pay for cybersecurity. His argument is that PC users who don't run antivirus apps or back up their computers or patch their systems regularly are like cigarette smokers who poison other people with second-hand smoke and need to pony up to cover the cost of cybersecurity.

Whoa Nellie! Isn’t it Microsoft who puts out weekly security updates to patch the holes discovered with great regularity in its operating system and apps? Yet Microsoft wants its customers to pay up for that? Seems like the pot calling the kettle black. And what about the folks who do run antivirus apps and patch their systems regularly …or dare I say it, use a Mac? Will they be swept into paying for the mistakes of others even more than they do now? I think Microsoft needs to look to its own before suggesting that the rest of us need to pay to fix software that wasn’t properly programmed to begin with.