What’s The New Computer Con Game? Mafiasoft.

PC users have Windows on their PCs. And spyware. And viruses. And attacks. And malware. And lack of security. Why? Microsoft seems to build holes in Windows.

The solution? Microsoft’s upcoming ‘subscription service’ (insurance). Some call it Mafiasoft.

Movies glorify the Mafia’s role in organized crime. One tactic for securing a steady flow of revenue is to lean on poor, defenseless businessmen, by offering them ‘insurance.’

The ‘insurance’ would protect their business from crime, disaster, fire, bullet holes, and the like.

To stay in business, the poor businessman was required to pay the Mafia’s representatives a monthly fee, you know, as ‘insurance’ against, well, against the Mafia.

What a great racket. Steady revenue, happy customers. That only happens in the movies, right? Right? Racketeering isn’t limited to the movies or to the 1920s.

Racketeering appears alive today.

For your consideration, I submit an Associated Press article which seems to describe the same kind of racket in high tech terms.

Software giant Microsoft provides Windows on 90-percent of the world’s computers. The Windows operating system, though, is full of security holes which allow viruses, spyware, malware, trojan horses.

These security holes appear built-in to Windows and cause businesses to lose productivity and tremendous amounts of money. Billions of dollars are spent each year to plug the security holes.

In this scenario, Microsoft comes to the ‘rescue’ of business owners with an ‘insurance package.’ It’s a monthly fee, a subscription service to help business cope with the security issues they face.

Microsoft’s products cause security holes, right? And Microsoft’s new products act as insurance, to ‘protect’ Windows users from the security holes. Hmmmm. What does that sound like to you?

The Mafia? MacDailyNews calls it Mafiasoft.

Microsoft has announced plans to test ‘Mafiasoft’ by the end of 2005. So brazen is the company that dominates computer desktops, that they call their new racket, “Client Protection.’

Hmmm. What does that sound like to you? A racket? Controlled by the Mafia? If so, ‘Mafiasoft’ is a fitting name.

‘Client Protection’ will be similar to ‘Windows OneCare’, another service Microsoft is working on to improve security for personal computers.

In the gangster and mafia movies, Crime Lords often work together to divide up territory to more effectively manage their criminal activities.

Microsoft announced the creation of a ‘Secure IT Alliance’ which involves a number of competitors, such as Symantec and Verisign. The idea, according to Microsoft and the Associated Press, is to “enable those companies to work closer with Microsoft - and each other - to more effectively and efficiently build and integrate their products together for the benefit of our common customers.”

Whoa. Sounds like a Mafiasoft shakedown of other Crime Lords, don’t you think?

Protection and security for a price. What a racket.