Re: How NSA access was built into Windows

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On Sunday 14 January 2007 23:58, Claude Jones wrote:
>" A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special
> access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been
> secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every
> version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early
> releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes
> close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US
> software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information" [local]
> trapdoor into its Notes system, and that security functions on other
> software systems had been deliberately crippled.
>
>The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years ago
> by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a few weeks
> ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access system. With it,
> he found the evidence linking it to NSA.
>
>Computer security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual
>features are contained inside a standard Windows software "driver" used
> for security and encryption functions. The driver, called
>ADVAPI.DLL,.........snip"
>
>The rest is here: http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
>
>So, my question is, if this is all true, then, what about Selinux?

Helluvagood question Claude, that same thought has crossed my mind for 
several so-called security products, particularly Phil Zimmermans pgp 
versions SINCE he was released from prison, and one reason that until I'm 
reassured by someone knowledgeable, and whom I can personally believe in, 
says its clean, I will never use a pgp newer than 2.6.2i.

Compatibility with whats running today, and potentially giving everyone a 
false sense of the warm fuzzies, in the event we should NEED pgp to 
refresh the tree of liberty, will be a very minor consideration, if at 
all.

Call me a paranoid (expletive deleted), that's fine, I can live with that.  
Then how does our competing gpg stand up under that same spotlight and 
magnifying glass?  I have exactly the same reservations about that, its 
all newer than 2.6.2i and born under suspicious circumstances.

The fact that we were handed this thing, basicly on a well polished 
platter of extremely dubious ancestry, makes it very troublesome when I 
think about it at night.

>--
>Claude Jones
>Brunswick, MD, USA

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2007 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.

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