Ehud Karni wrote:
> It is not about the software, it is about support Some defense
> departments are using this software with SourceFire support and
> they are afraid that Israel might spy on them (remember Polard ?).
Actually, I think you are right. Would the Israeli army agree for
workers of a company from a foreign country to be in charge of
installing & maintaining security software on the Israeli army's
computers?
Sorry for the late reply-
Actually I don't think they'd have too much problem with that in many circumstances.
Almost the entire army runs Windows. Do you think that the IDF has read and approved the Windows source code?
The army buys IBM (probably Lenovo now) PCs. Do you think the IDF examined every circuit on every motherboard?
The army has a $20 million dollar Oracle contract- do you think the IDF has the Oracle source code?
Do you think the IDF doesn't call Oracle with support questions? (I guarantee you that they have 24/7 support)
So how, you ask, don't the CEO's of Microsoft, Lenovo, and Oracle know all the deep dark secrets of the IDF?
The simple answer is that Israel like most countries tries as much as possible to limit the connectivity of the army computers to the real world (ie. internet) so you don't have to worry even if XP tries to phone home. Security contracts are handed out to Israeli subcontractors who don't pass on unnecessary info to foreign companies.
Really, the US could have easily approved the sale and just trained/hired other "americans" people to maintain the systems themselves using telephone support from sourcefire for technical questions. There is no real reason for Sourcefire to have access to the networks in order to provide support.
yonah
Remember that a company can receive a court order from its
country, which it has to follow - whether it likes it or not. Remember
that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc. give information to the Unites States
government (with or without court orders), and even to the Chinese
government.
The world is controlled by power, and the USA wants to keep power and
not share it with other countries. All countries want power. But some
have more power than others.
I wouldn't call it stupid, but I would call it selfish. The world is a
selfish place. Read The Selfish Gene for more details.
Best Regards,
Uri Even-Chen
Speedy Net
Raanana, Israel
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: +972-9-7715013
Website: www.uri.co.il
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