government licensing internet Microsoft Proposal [Microsoft ]

Microsoft Proposal Opens Door For Government Licensing To Access Internet,government licensing internet

 

A new proposal by a top Microsoft executive would open the door for government licensing to access the Internet, with authorities being empowered to block individual computers from connecting to the world wide web under the pretext of preventing malware attacks.
Speaking to the ISSE 2010 computer security conference in Berlin yesterday, Scott Charney, Microsoft vice president of Trustworthy Computing, said that cybersecurity should mirror public health safety laws, with infected PC’s being “quarantined” by government decree and prevented from accessing the Internet.
“If a device is known to be a danger to the internet, the user should be notified and the device should be cleaned before it is allowed unfettered access to the internet, minimizing the risk of the infected device contaminating other devices,” Charney said.
Charney said the system would be a “global collective defense” run by corporations and government and would “track and control” people’s computers similar to how government health bodies track diseases.
Invoking the threat of malware attacks as a means of dissuading or blocking people from using the Internet is becoming a common theme – but it’s one tainted with political overtones.
At the launch of the Obama administration’s cybersecurity agenda earlier this year, Democrats attempted to claim that the independent news website The Drudge Report was serving malware, an incident Senator Jim Inhofe described as a deliberate ploy “to discourage people from using Drudge”.
Under the new proposals, not only would the government cite the threat of malware to prevent people from visiting Drudge, they would be blocked from the entire world wide web, creating a dangerous precedent by giving government the power to dictate whether people can use the Internet and effectively opening the door for a licensing system to be introduced.
Similar to how vehicle inspections are mandatory for cars in some states before they can be driven, are we entering a phase where you will have to obtain a PC health check before a government IP czar will issue you with a license, or an Internet ID card, allowing you to access the web?
Of course, the only way companies or the government could know when your system becomes infected with malware is to have some kind of mandatory software or firewall installed on every PC which sends data to a centralized hub, greasing the skids for warrantless surveillance and other invasions of privacy.
Microsoft has been at the forefront of a bid to introduce Internet licensing as a means of controlling how people access and use the world wide web, an effort that has intensified over the course of the past year.
Under the new proposals, not just the government cited the threat of malicious software to prevent people from making Drudge, they were blocked from the Web world-wide, creating a dangerous precedent by giving the government the power to dictate whether people can effectively use the Internet and open the door to a licensing system should be introduced.
Similar to the way in which vehicle inspections are mandatory for cars in some states before they can be trained, we are entering a phase where you will get a health check before a PC IP czar government will issue a license, or an identification card on the Internet, allowing you to access the web?
Of course, the only way companies or the government could find out if your system is infected with malware is to have some sort of firewall software required or installed on each PC that sends data to a centralized hub, grease skates for warrantless surveillance and other invasions of privacy.
Microsoft has been at the forefront of an offer to introduce licensing Internet as a means of controlling how people access and use the World Wide Web, an effort that has intensified over the past year.