[KLUG Members] Security?

[Robert G. Brown]

On Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:38:25 -0500, Eric Beversluis <ebever at researchintegration.org>wrote:

>On Tue, 2007-01-09 at 15:32 -0500, Greenproc wrote:
>>On Tuesday 09 January 2007 06:45, Eric Beversluis wrote:
>>>>From today's Cleveland Plain Dealer (buried inside, as the front page
>>>was full of some sports story that Ohioans thought important):
>>>"NSA helps Microsoft with Vista security."
>>>Is it me, or is there something disturbingly Orwellian about the
>>>nation's top spy agency 
>>no, it's not just you. I think the world in genereal is strangely Orwellian, 
>>and I'm not willing to limit those thoughts to computers.

I don't see this as Orwellian; the NSA spends the great majority of its 
resources on stuff closely related to information security, and it is a
recognized resource for this kind of thing. The article mentions that other
OS developers have worked with NSA as well.

>>>helping to design the secret workings of the 
>>>operating system that, according to the article, is used by 90% of the
>>>desktop computers in the world?
I don't think there was any reference to "secret workings" anywhere (and if
there were, it wouldn't be too secret, would it? :) ). The intention is 
fairly clear, the NSA is going to help any OS developer (and do their own
R&D) regarding information security matters, which translates into some
assurance that these systems are indeed proofed aginst known attacks.

>>They did write SELinux which find itself in RedHat, Suse, and many others.
Yes, in essence an R&D project for them that came to light, becuase it is
actually in everyones' interest to have more secure systems, even the NSA's.
In fact, information security is part of their mission.

>>Now did they do it for free, or did MS have a choice, who's paying who?
Probably done for free, as a way of vetting the OS. It's a typical
product testing and proofing situation. There are some guidelines 
for this kind of thing, too.

>>What is the url for the article you mentioned? I didn't find it.
>It was in the print version of the Plain Dealer. It's a Washington Post
>story, so you might find it on their page.
Here's the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/08/AR2007010801352.html

							Regards,
							---> RGB <---