I'm unaware of the public directives for the NSA. What I do know is that it has been leaked that they have been collecting massive amounts of data on everyone is the U.S.
Are you familiar with this? http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/ I too was in the military. Knew little of what was going on. That was by design, not mine, theirs. If there was a security breach you may not have known because you probably had not need to know. ------------------------ Keith Smith --- On Mon, 6/24/13, S. Dale Morrey <[email protected]> wrote: From: S. Dale Morrey <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Times to move to Linux To: "Provo Linux Users Group" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, June 24, 2013, 7:56 PM Imagine someone in a Linux users group evangelizing Linux. :) Ok there are ALOT of reasons to choose Linux over Windows. The whole NSAKEY thing is not one of them. There is a very good explanation of the controversy over on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY However if you're going to look at the whole NSAKEY thing and say that this is evidence that windows has an NSA backdoor, you need to assume that Linux does too. I mean seriously have you ever looked at who exactly it was that designed and built SELinux? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-Enhanced_Linux Perhaps we should all move on to OpenBSD *ducks* :) Here are the facts. The NSA has 2 primary directives. The first directive is to analyse foreign signals intelligence. The second directive is to actively work to secure the information infrastructure of the US Government, especially the more sensitive bits. If I had to take a guess I would say that both NSAKEY and SELinux are part of the second directive. For instance the NSAKEY would make sense in a situation where the NSA needs to look at the source code of drivers, tighten them up, then deploy them. Seems logical that windows would allow a driver signed by the NSA without any knowledge of the fact from Microsoft et al, especially in light of how many .gov workstations are running some flavor or another of windows doesn't it? I mean imagine for a second how embarrassing it would be for an aircraft carrier on it's maiden voyage to be compromised by a rootkit installed via a drive by download from a sailor surfing porn while at sea. Then imagine that rootkit had some really nasty bits that then went on to compromise the movements and secrets of the entire Pacific Fleet. Of course nothing like that could have ever happened during my time in the military, so I wouldn't be violating the law by disclosing it, just imagine it as a hypothetical. :) On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 6:04 PM, keith smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I think it is time to move everything to Linux. According to this article > the NSA has had a backdoor to Windows since 95. > http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/nsa-has-total-access-via-microsoft-windows/ > > I seem to recall Ubuntu some backdoor also. > > > > ------------------------ > > Keith Smith > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */ /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
