I’m really ticked off.

There’s a company out there that sells virus protection software for computers and I am just furious with them.

I won’t mention the company’s name, but I can tell you that it rhymes with "Horton."

We purchased virus protection software for the computers the newspaper uses and each year, we buy a new annual subscription from "Horton" to keep the unwanted little bugs off our machines.

And so recently, when the subscription for both computers expired, we renewed them, but the strangest thing happened…

Immediately after installing the new subscriptions, the Virus protection software stopped working.

Imagine that!

What are the odds the software would fail at the exact same moment we renewed our subscriptions – and on two totally independent computers?

And so we contacted "Horton" and they told us that they no longer offer customer support on "older" versions on their software. The software is only two years old!

They said the solution to our problem was to buy the new version of their software.

The $32.46 annual subscription, obviously, was not enough for "Horton."

Apparently they want us to spend more than that to upgrade to the latest version.

In fact, I think they want customers to upgrade to their latest product so badly that they have decided to start sending a special little "bug" along with their subscription renewals that causes the software to fail.

Ironic, don’t you think?

A company that you pay to protect your computer from bugs is sending you bugs to make sure you don’t miss out an opportunity to spend more money with them.

Here’s an analogy:

Let’s say you buy a car and it uses a special kind of gas to keep it running. The only place you can buy this gas from is the same place that sold you the car.

The car runs fine on the first tank of gas that came with it, but then the time comes when you have to refill the tank to keep the car running.

You return to the dealership and they fill up the tank.

You pay the money and they fill up the tank.

You get back in the car and you turn the key, but the car won’t start.

"What’s the deal?" you ask the dealer.

"I’d like to help you out, but we don’t offer repairs for that car anymore," the dealer tells you.

"However," the dealer says, "if you upgrade to this newer car – you won’t have any problems – at least not until that first tank of gas runs dry."

The average person doesn’t understand how computer software works and these companies prey on that weakness. They know that most people will just raise the white flag of surrender and pay the strong-armed thugs whatever it takes to keep their computers protected.

It’s really not much different than criminals who sell "protection" to local businesses in a neighborhood.

There’s a word for it – extortion.

What "Horton" doesn’t know is that the Texas Attorney General’s office just loves to take on thugs whether it’s the kind that ask for money under the threat of violence or the thugs who think they are a little more clever than that – choosing malevolent data as their weapon of choice.

I can tell you a few things about "Horton."

"Horton" won’t refund the money paid for the subscription that disabled the program and therefore made the subscription unusable.

"Horton" won’t fix the program that their update damaged.

"Horton" will be hearing from the Texas Attorney General’s office real soon.