[Leaplist] Linux safe?

Sat Aug 4 23:13:05 EDT 2007

due to open source's nature unlike the ms's of the world ANYONE can look 
at the entire source code tree.  If the license prohibits that peer 
review then you have the option of not using that code.  A backdoor 
would be very difficult in not nearly impossible to sneak through code 
that's open.

patrick wrote:
> If our government and others, like Germany in the first one, can do all
> the following things to Windows users, I wonder if there are some
> "rights" and protections about to be lost to GNU/Linux users.  Is there
> more to SElinux compiled into the Linux kernel, than the 'security'
> added by the NSA?
> 
> Zypries intensifies criticism of proposed online searches of PCs
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "For the hole used to be made public would be tantamount to a major
> disaster
> | for the BKA," Ms. Kurz, who also told the paper about attempts to
> headhunt
> | CCC members to help program the Federal Trojan spyware, warned.
> |
> | More and more data privacy officials and advocates as well as lawyers are
> | voicing doubts about the proposals to allow authorities to conduct
> | surreptitious online searches of private PCs. The parties are raising
> | objections of a fundamental nature and are warning against attempts to
>    amend
> | the Basic Law (Germany's Constitution).
> `----
> 
> http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/93817/from/rss09
> 
> 
> Related:
> 
> FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | There are plenty of unanswered questions about the FBI spyware that,
> as we
> | reported earlier this week, can be delivered over the Internet and
> implanted
> | in a suspect's computer remotely.
> `----
> 
> http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9747666-7.html
> 
> 
> US government snoops used Vista to spy on me
> 
> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41167
> 
> 
> Cybercrime Poses Challenges for Government, Industry Says Report
> 
> ,----[ Quote
> | Botnet – A network of remotely controlled systems used to coordinate
> attacks
> | and distribute malware, spam, and phishing scams. Bots (short for
> “robots”)
> | are programs that are covertly installed on a targeted system allowing an
> | unauthorized user to remotely control the compromised computer for a
> variety
> | of malicious purposes.
> `----
> 
> http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/10857/cybercrime-poses-challenges-government-industry-says-report
> 
> 
> United States Government Online Watchdogs? Part of the war on terror?
> 
> ,----[ Quote
> | Is there anyone in the abandonia community with a US based connection
> who is
> | experiencing this watchdog behavior? Are any foreign Vista users
> experiencing
> | similar attacks from their own countries ministries and governing
> agencies?"
> `----
> 
> http://www.whitedust.net/news/3984/United_States_Government_Online_Watchdogs?_Part_of_the_war_on_terror?.../
> 
> 
> Back doors in Windows XP...
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGlNTEQ0RzM
> 
> 
> Mother of all spyware...
> 
> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml
> 
> 
> Police eats your CPU cycles and disk space...
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Vista—Microsoft’s latest operating system—may prove to be most
> | appropriately named, especially for those seeking evidence of how a
> | computer was used.
> `----
> 
> http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/jy13tkjasn.html
> 
> 
> Will Microsoft Put The Colonel in the Kernel?
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | "The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent
> | application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers
> targeted
> | advertising as 'part of the OS.'
> `----
> 
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/14/043200
> 
> 
> Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to
> | sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files,
> | user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status
> | messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more.
> How could
> | we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer
> status
> | messages?
> `----
> 
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html
> 
> 
> German government admits it is already conducting online searches
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Piltz called on the German government to block funding for the
> | programming of software used in online searches; she also said it
> | was urgent that the government "discontinue these searches until
> | the German Supreme Court has reached a ruling on the matter."
> `----
> 
> http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/88895/from/rss09
> 
> 
> "Trusted" Computing
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Do you imagine that any US Linux distributor would say no to the
> | US government if they were requested (politely, of course) to add
> | a back-door to the binary Linux images shipped as part of their
> | products ? Who amongst us actually uses the source code so helpfully
> | given to us on the extra CDs to compile our own version ? With
> | Windows of course there are already so many back-doors known and
> | unknown that the US government might not have even bothered to
> | ask Microsoft, they may have just found their own, ready to
> | exploit at will. What about Intel or AMD and the microcode on
> | the processor itself ?
> `----
> 
> http://tuxdeluxe.org/node/164
> 
> 
> '---[ Quote ]
> | In relation to the issue of sharing technical API and protocol
> | information used throughout Microsoft products, which the
> | states were seeking, Allchin alleged that releasing this
> | information would increase the security risk to consumers.
> |
> |        "It is no exaggeration to say that the national security is
> |        also implicated by the efforts of hackers to break into
> |        computing networks. Computers, including many running Windows
> |        operating systems, are used throughout the United States
> |        Department of Defense and by the armed forces of the United
> |        States in Afghanistan and elsewhere."
> `----
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Allchin
> 
> 
> How NSA access was built into Windows
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | 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 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.
> `----
> 
> http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
> 
> 
> NSA Builds Security Access Into Windows
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has shown that special access
> | codes for use by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) have been
> secretly
> | built into all versions of the Windows operating system.
> `----
> 
> 
> http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990903S0014
> 
> 
> Could Hollywood hack your PC?  Could the Government?
> 
> ,----[ 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
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> 
> .
> 

-- 
My "Foundation" verse:
Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and 
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt 
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their 
righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

-- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape"
CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician)

Linux user #322099
Machines:
206822
256638
276825
http://counter.li.org/