I read an article claiming that Microsoft got help from the NSA to improve the security of Vista. Don't you think it's a bit big-brother?
I've heard about it in the past, but until now it wasn't official. It's been going on for at least 6 years, here's a report from 1999 about NSA and Windows:
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
Candy20, these are two different things. The article you're linking to mentions back doors that the NSA have in Microsoft OSes, but this discussion is about help that the NSA gave Microsoft with improving the security of Vista. It certainly doesn't mean that Microsoft let them have a back door there.
You can read more about it, there's really a lot to read:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36814
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/08/AR2007010801352.html
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/09/1356222&from=rss
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/01/nsa_helps_micro_1.html
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2007/01/microsoft-vista-checked-by-nsa.html
http://vancouver.indymedia.org/node/4481
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=44120&src=site-marq
http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=27749
http://www.net-security.org/news.php?id=13214
http://www.gigalaw.com/news/2007/01/nsa-helped-microsoft-secure-vista.html
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/10/HNnsamadevistasecure_1.html
http://p135.news.scd.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070110/tc_infoworld/85025
And by the way, the NSA was also involved in the development of Mac OS X and the Linux Kernel (not only
If you really have state secrets to keep that the NSA maybe after and are paranoid then you should not use Microsoft, Apple or any other closed source product.
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