Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican, questioned during a hearing if Congress should require antivirus software to be installed on every U.S. computer to counter the billions of dollars in damage done by viruses and worms in 2003 alone.
"Is it time for the federal government to develop some kind of Internet security agency that would develop standards for all legitimate software, require automatic update and patching and establish a base level for every single computer in the country?" Bass said during a hearing on computer viruses in the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee and Telecommunications and the Internet. "Is there any reason why any computer in this country shouldn't have some kind of antivirus software on it as a requirement?"
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