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.
