Microsoft at RSA: Maybe We Need to Raise Taxes to Pay for Cyber Security Defense

At RSA this past week, Microsoft VP Scott Charney said we should tax everyone on the Internet to pay for cyber security efforts in the government. This is a bad idea from Microsoft, perhaps the worst since that stupid Clippy animated help feature in Office.

From the makers of “Clippy” comes a great new idea. Raising taxes!

From theHill here:

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.

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.

Here’s a better idea. Patch your freakin software, Microsoft. And while you guys have done an outstanding job doing this in the past few years, much of the problems with phishing, botnets and viruses are still Windows based issues. So STFU about raising my taxes.