Microsoft's tax-for-hacks 'horrible' idea, say security experts

Microsoft's idea that the fight against malware could be funded by an Internet tax is "horrible," an analyst said Thursday as other experts weighed in on a recent comment by the company's security chief.

"The idea of a general Net tax is a horrible idea," said John Pescatore, Gartner's security analyst. "Why not a tax on all retail goods for a standard anti-shoplifting service all merchants would have to use?" A business, he said, can now select what it thinks is the best anti-malware solution, but that choice would presumably vanish if funding for battling the bad guys went national. "A general tax would reduce the services to the lowest common denominator," Pescatore contended.

Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer at security company Qualys, agreed. "I have a hard time seeing [a tax] work. The Internet is an international body; you can't regulate it, and you cannot levy a tax. ISPs might have to up their fees to pay for something like this, I can see that, but a tax that brings government into play -- I can't see that." Others who disagreed with Charney's proposed Net tax argued that Web users would end up paying, tax or no tax, to fight hackers.