Government licensing access to the internet. If your computer is thought to be “infected” you get shut down til it is cleansed. A Microsoft executive put up the idea during last week in the US using a health scare (an epidemic or pandemic) as the analogy.
Not sure I like the sound of this. Particularly in the light of discussions around open government and the importance of and need for access to the internet by the population.
But I need to do more research on it. So shall not take a hard and fast view yet. Privacy issues and cybersecurity keep being raised with me in discussions with a range of tech people across the spectrum.
This is one of the big issues. Keen for your thoughts.
Here’s one take on what Microsoft said
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
