NSA involved in Windows 7 security
the nsa says it’s been involved w/ microsoft in designing security measures against hackers in windows 7. and this is neither the first time nor the only OS vendor it has helped. the nsa was involved in vista’s design and has consulted w/ apple, sun, red hat, symantec, mcafee and intel.
i’m not usually a conspiracy guy, but this bugs me. u have the premiere electronic eavesdropping agency involved w/ OS and security firms. sure, this makes sense on a practical level b/c they’ll likely know tons about defeating security measures. but does anyone remember the clipper chip? it was designed as a way the gov’t could have a backdoor into encrypted communication. who knows if something similar might be going on w/ this “consulting.” at the very least, the gov’t is getting vendor level knowledge about what is vulnerable and what isn’t on current OS’s. the nsa’s main task conflicts directly w/ what these companies are trying to accomplish in security. i hope i’m just overthinking this, but i just don’t know.
UPDATE: ms denies any backdoors were built in. like they would ever confirm something like that…
