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- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -19/+204Seeing how I'm on Windows right now, um.. I don't see a problem with this at all and fully endorse anything the government sees fit to do.*
*Ebay ackbay inway away ewfay inutesmay onway ymay Acbookmay - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+167@ sockpuppets
I'm sure this will be unpopular to say on Digg, but what makes you think this can't happen with Mac OSX? - jls777, on 10/12/2007, -16/+146Well hell I guess that in the back of my head I always knew this. Now the bitch of it all is going to try to figure out what Linux distro to use, and most important of all is how to use it!
- directedition, on 10/12/2007, -0/+83Somewhere in China is an intelligence official looking down at his pirated copy of Windows going "Oh *****...."
- Nichevo, on 10/12/2007, -9/+86Imagine all the industrial espionage that has resulted. It would be ludicrous to imagine this hasn't been abused.
The question is: can it be done remotely?
Time to switch to open source if you run a business:
http://www.truecrypt.org/ - Lixie, on 10/12/2007, -6/+73Shhh, you article-readers ruin all the fun. I was about to get my torch and pitchfork before I read your informed comment.
- lsochris, on 10/12/2007, -15/+79this is from 1999 how is this news?
- Sil369, on 10/12/2007, -0/+52*covers PC in tinfoil*
- muffinmanpoo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+49Dugg because I want to see some discussion on this. Is this necessarily some sort of secret backdoor? Is it not possible, as mentioned in TFA, that "the NSA key could be intended to let US government users of Windows run classified cryptosystems on their [own] machines"?
- tony134340, on 10/12/2007, -9/+52"this is from 1999 how is this news?"
Because the NSA worked with Vista also, so it's relevant. Not to say there's any kind of backdoor implementations that we won't know about, but judge for yourself.
And news doesn't necessarily have to be new news. We can use past news to understand our current situations also. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -26/+66I usually suggest the distro with the most users. It helps to have a big community to help you out when you run into a snag.
Anything but that Microsoft abomination is preferrable. - RoshanK, on 10/12/2007, -4/+43The article is from 1999. How is this supposed to be a surprise?
- nstanosheck, on 10/12/2007, -7/+43Just one more of many reasons to use Linux instead!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -15/+51"...also, any sort of encoding, as in cryptography, would have a very noticeable impact on system performance."
But we're talking about Windows, so how would you notice? Degradation of system performance is an everyday thing. - nodong, on 10/12/2007, -5/+41You have a lack of imagination. You would not be hired by the NSA.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36"there is just too much bad news around Vista, and good news about Jaguar."
I take it you're getting all your news from digg. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38(as posted below) relevant info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+31"With Windows, the user does not own the operating system (just a license to
use it)."
The same goes for Mac OSX. - schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -11/+39With Windows, the user does not own the operating system (just a license to
use it). Moreover, the US Government is free to access the system whenever
it desires to do so.
Here is some more recent evidence:
Data Protection Commissioner criticizes search of private PCs online
,----[ Quote ]
| "In the case of a search via the Internet a police officer covertly,
| without the person knowing about it, accesses a person's computer."
| During such an operation he or she might copy data and obtain all
| kinds of personal documents; the police officer was acting as a "state
| hacker," so to speak. Mr. Schaar observed. "Such an approach is in
| conflict with the legal obligation to protect the core of
| individuals' privacy," Mr. Schaar stated emphatically.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82529/from/rss09
Could Hollywood hack your PC?
,----[ Quote ]
| Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal
| that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for
| illicit file trading.
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-945923.html
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2006/08/14/microsoft-us-spy/
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2006/03/04/vista-encrypted-filesystem/ - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27"I was under the impression that the average digger was smarter than the average /.er."
you're kidding, right? last i checked the average age of a /.'er wasn't 12 - bobbknight, on 10/12/2007, -11/+37OMG how old is this? And it's on the front page of DIGG. This info is from like, last century.
Go here and use it to protect your self.
http://www.gnupg.org/ - MadEnvoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23@skyshock21
It did...
http://www.digg.com/security/NSA_provided_security_help_for_Windows_Mac_OS_X - Sil369, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27Dugg schestowitz's comment for making a quote look sexy in Digg.
- Sil369, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24What if the NSA is involved with Macs too?
- jrsims, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23Not only is this possible in Mac OSX, but it could be possible in the commercial Linuxes too. For example, Red Hat ships you opaque binaries based on open source code. But, unless you build from source yourself, there's no way to really be certain that someone didn't sneak something in there. Personally I believe (and hope) that this doesn't really happen in the OSS world, but it's worth mentioning.
Sure there's a GPL, but it's only illegal if you get caught, right? And with the right government support, the benefits could outweigh the legal risks. In the cutthroat software business, that's all that really matters. Risk vs. return.
So are there really any true safe havens? What do we do?
I guess if you're really hardcore about this stuff... Linux from scratch:
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org - sishgupta, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24IMHO the best way is to:
1. go to: http://distrowatch.com/
2. Start with the distro ranked #1
3. move down the list until you find one that you like most.
I recommend Ubuntu for newbies, but I am biased as it is what I use. - Nocturnal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Yup, and the reason for the access will be, "You either let us in or you're hiding something and are a terrists!!!!!"
- h0zae, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17sooner or later NSA access will be mandatory
- Sil369, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18I think the NSA also slipped some code in my Fajitas.
- Lixie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16I'd like to know if these backdoors were also implemented into Mac OS X.
- plusmedic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Actually, it's an 8 year old reason (12 if you count how long it's actually been around for)
- Chordonblue, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Mark Shuttlesworth of Ubuntu fame was talking about how to make Ubuntu more acceptable - I think he'd have a GREAT opener here - especially for the Euro and Asian customers.
Imagine the response if a worldwide ad campaign talked about how the U.S. gov't is spying on everything people do on a computer that uses a Windows operating system. That might be a bit over the top, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility. If this was played right, you could see whole Euro gov'ts mandating the use of OSS just for security reasons. This is certainly not good news for MS. - MioTheGreat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17The NSA works with everything. It's not unique to microsoft.
- yoda715, on 10/12/2007, -8/+21If anyone was looking for another reason to switch to Linux, this is a new prime reason.
- dsthunder, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15@sockpuppets
not gonna be too safe on your macbook either - jaylittle, on 10/12/2007, -12/+25I was under the impression that the average digger was smarter than the average /.er. I guess I was wrong. The story is BS. Not only that but the story is 7 years old. As if the date in the header wasn't enough, the very mention of NT4 Service Pack 5 as the latest version of NT ought to have been clue enough.
Do you people even read the articles? - unit101, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19@ Madenvoy
Providing security advice (OS X) is not the same thing as making a backdoor (Windows). - mc7winkie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13The NSA is involved in Windows 98 till present, Mac OS X and future versions, and SUSE Linux.
- ElumEnopee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13My guess would be yes. When the NSA comes knocking on your door you do what they say. Do people actually beleive that if they can have access to Windows, your home phone, you cell phone, your bank account, and your credit cards that they would leave a Mac alone?
- DrDabbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Not to try to sound like one of those old folks that laughs at kids, but waaaaaay back- before 1998, this information was released. Much of the internet and "tech" community was in an uproar because of it. See, the NSA knew the whole internet thing would catch on. They also knew crypto products like PGP would become important to corporations and terrorists. They tried to make the PGP authors build in a back door, as did most of the EU nations. PGP refused.
Before any of you knew your liberties were being infringed on, I was writing your senators and congress people. So, I am glad to say that I was an activist on this issue before it was even an issue most people knew about. What thanks do people in my position get? We get to see our nightmares come true- 'Net neutrality and back door access to internationally used software. ~*sigh*~ Seems like such a waste of time and effort now. - S1ngular1ty1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10The NSA helped MS make VISTA MORE SECURE. They also helped APPLE, and SUSE Linux. And they have been helping these companies for a long time.
What operating system do you think most government contractors use on their PCs? Windows, duh. So the government has some interest in making the OS more secure so their secrets aren't stolen. - Barlo_Mung, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10"Just one more of many reasons to use Linux instead!"
Just for the things I don't want the NSA to see. They can watch me play Counter Strike all they want. On the other hand, they may notice that I always play the terrorist side and get suspicious. Bummer. - Chordonblue, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10No '1984' was far ahead of it's time. So was 'Brazil'...
- Andareed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Terrible analysis; nowhere does it explain how NSA can access your PC at will. All this key does is allow NSA to sign their own CSP's (Cryptographic Service Providers). "Normal" people need to get them signed by Microsoft, as explained here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa382436.aspx . If the NSA were to develop classified encryption methods, they would not want to send their modules to Microsoft. This is the reason that the NSA key is there - whether you think this is acceptable or not is irrelevant. This key is simply not there to allow backdoor or remote access to the NSA.
- jncamilo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8there is on mine (also XP) its called "advapi32" in the system32 folder
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8More info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14Here's something else for you conspiracy theorists.
Ever notice the lack of Windows trolls commenting during the weekends? Could it be they read Digg from their MSCE jobs instead of doing their work? Could it be some of them are paid astroturfers? Or do Windows trolls hibernate on weekends? I think you know what the answer is. - geoken, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10"Ever notice the lack of Windows trolls commenting during the weekends? Could it be they read Digg from their MSCE jobs instead of doing their work? Could it be some of them are paid astroturfers? Or do Windows trolls hibernate on weekends? I think you know what the answer is."
That's a great conclusion you've come to. I personally have never heard of anyone, apart from MSCE employees of course, who sit on a computer and do nothing the majority of the day. - ko16736, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Wow, ummmm, am I the only one who read Dan Brown's Digital Fortress, and about how the NSA was trying to get a backdoor into all encryption software? Isn't this close to being the same thing, or am I just tired/moonbent?
- konspence, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13They'll never be able to track what I do, since I type everything in Rot-26.
Oh, and I use Linux. -
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