06.03.14
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 11:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Openwashing still the focus of Microsoft’s strategy
MICROSOFT IS hiring staff specifically for the task of openwashing the company and it very much shows, especially in recent months [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The corporate press is helping Microsoft here. It does not care about facts, it cares about its sponsors.
The NSA‘s most notorious whitewasher CBS (which ran an infamous 60-minute propaganda piece for the NSA) continues to give a platform to radicals like Hayden this week. It also gives Microsoft a “propaganda platform” (State Department terminology), with one of the top people in CNET serving this propaganda (Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET). FOSS people don’t believe it for a second. It’s the strategy which relies for whitewashing on pseudo-leader Nadella (Gates is still in charge), despite the fact that he has changed nothing (criminal activity continues). It also relies on Microsoft staff and Microsoft-funded ‘analysts’ such as Forrester. The propaganda can be seen here. It’s a collection of talking points, including:
“There has been a real change,” said Forrester analyst Jeffrey Hammond, noting that while that shift hasn’t yet permeated the entire Microsoft organization — particularly the Windows team, “it’s seeped into enough of the organization that it’s more than just window dressing. There are many example where Microsoft is integrating with, and even creating open source in an effort to grow market share and support customers.
It should not be so shocking that CBS does this hogwash. It loves Microsoft just like it loves the NSA. Speaking of which, Bill Gates not only promotes the NSA's mass surveillance (publicly) but slams Snowden too (in the popular mainstream fashion of false dichotomy). Will Hill notes that Gates indoctrination attack persists in the US (fighting freedom of thought with corporate schooling):
New Orleans public schools are gone. Schools in New Orleans have been converted into segregated, private schools. In general, these don’t perform better than the public schools they replace but they do channel money and power to rich people. Private schools put student records into private databases and give oligarchs even more power over what we think.
There is tremendous resistance to this especially in places where Gates and Broad got their way. Here’s a report about how privatization has hurt poor people which cites the harm done in charter school pioneer, Milwaukee. In New York, Education Historian, Diane Ravitch has some very insightful criticism. In Seattle there is the wonderful Seattle Education Blog with this update about pushback.
In this recent article Ravitch explains the attack on public education as class warfare. That’s true and it’s bad news because the only reliable indicator of academic performance is household income. The rich and powerful don’t want to reform education, they just want to take more money for themselves. Ruining public education gives them money and control for more of the same. [...] more of the same, “character growth” as judged by your corporate overlords, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117615/problem-grit-kipp-and-character-based-education
Perhaps we can sum it all up by saying that Microsoft and Gates are waging a war on people’s minds. █
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Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security at 11:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Codenomicon (where the ‘former’ Chief Security Officer for Microsoft is now the Chairman of the Board) is back to smearing FOSS projects whilst ignoring back doors in proprietary software such as Apple and Microsoft operating systems
SO-CALLED ‘SECURITY’ firms should spend more time finding flaws in secret (and most likely broken-by-design) encryption, such as the nefarious NSA stuff in Microsoft software. If they cannot gain access to the code (never mind the build process), then they should assume it to be insecure, by default. NSA is all over proprietary software, but it hides behind secret deals and arrangements with a blanket of NDAs (PRISM for instance). There is a lot of stuff in secret code which is designed to subvert encryption; we already have evidence of it, thanks to Edward Snowden.
Earlier this year we saw some FUD thrown at GnuTLS [1, 2], despite the fact that — or because — flaws had already been patched. That’s what makes Free software so powerful; fixes are almost immediate.
Then there was the whole “Heartbleed” hype [1, 2, 3], which came from Codenomicon, a firm headed by Microsoft’s ‘former’ chief (who also has FBI history and probably knows how the FBI and Microsoft created their now-infamous back doors). The whole thing stinks very badly and we have already explained why.
Now there is this new attack on the reputation of GnuTLS. Guess who’s behind it? Here’s a quote: “Codenomicon, which found the Heartbleed flaw, discovered another SSL flaw, this time in the open-source GnuTLS library. GnuTLS is part of many Linux distros.
“Security firm Codenomicon has found a new Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) flaw in the GnuTLS open-source cryptographic library. Codenomicon rose to notoriety in April as the security firm that found and branded the Heartbleed flaw in the open-source OpenSSL cryptographic library.”
Codenomicon did not discover it. It was the opportunist. The flaw was discovered by another company (a person in Google), but Codenomicon marketed the flaw, hyped it all up (later bragging about the business it brought), and then disclosed it prematurely and irresponsibly, before all sorts of crucial sites had been patched. Codenomicon is a nasty Trojan horse in the security world and it has an agenda. As we showed before, Codenomicon is also a Microsoft partner, never mind the staff’s high-level connections to Microsoft.
The GnuTLS flaw which Codenomicon speaks about is already patched [1] and a Red Hat employee explains why — if anything (contrary to media reports [2]) — this demonstrates the advantage of Free software [3].
In other security news, the proprietary TrueCrypt is seemingly under some kind of fight from the outside (or infighting). Nobody seems to know for sure what’s going on there yet [4] (maybe a split among the developers or some coverup), but theories with supportive evidence get posted [5]. GNU/Linux distros drop TrueCrypt [6] as soon as possible. The Linux Foundation is still focused on OpenSSL [7,8] these days.
It should be noted that the likely cause for issues in TrueCrypt is US government overreach (back doors or request for back doors). These days, making encryption that works is seen like some kind of crime as if it directly facilitates crime [9]. It’s possible that a move to some place like Switzerland will help dodge these issues. Red Hat too should move to some place like Switzerland, for several reasons we wrote about before (security, not just software patents and trolls).
Finally, in some other security news, notice how Apple is deviating further away from standards [10,11] whilst attacking a Free/Open Source operating system (Android) over “security”, as if Apple with PRISM and back doors is somehow more secure than Android. How does Apple do all this? Well, citing some gossip bloggers from the CBS-owned tabloid ZDNet (CBS is paid by Apple), the CEO of Apple had this to say:
To illustrate his point, he quoted the title of a recent article by ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a self-described “big fan of Android.”
The article’s title? “Android fragmentation turning devices into a toxic hellstew of vulnerabilities” – and Cook’s slide of that quote added animated flames to the word “hellstew.”
Wait a second, Mr. Cook. Your operating system (core) has back doors which Apple designed and bragged about, never mind the NSA and PRISM. These back doors are now misused by non-government crackers. How can Cook claim security advantage with a straight face? The British press (above) ought to have pointed out these issues.
Speaking of British press, watch the Microsoft-controlled BBC spreading some FUD without naming Microsoft, even though only Microsoft is the culprit. One has to read many paragraphs before reaching the part where it says: “If your computer does not run Windows, stop right here. This does not affect you – but other problems might, so always keep your antivirus up to date.”
GNU/Linux does not require antivirus, unless it’s a server that serves files to Windows clients. But never mind all that, the BBC supports the antivirus myth (some antivirus companies do the same to Android), pretending that all platforms are not secure. The fact that this is a Microsoft-only problem should have been stated in the headline, but it’s not. Therein lies the typical bias of the BBC and some other Bill Gates- and/or Microsoft-funded press (BBC is funded by both). Microsoft is simply not being mentioned when there are Microsoft-only security problems, only when there is good news (promotion).
Watch out for FUD; lots of it exists, but it’s well concealed. A lot of it is bias by omission or bias by emphasis/selectivity. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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The maintainers of GnuTLS, a secure communications library used in Red Hat, Ubuntu other Linux distributions, have released fixes for a critical bug affecting the client-side of the software.
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I don’t fear the bugs that get fixed (in OpenSSL and now GnuTLS) in an open, transparent way we open source people do. I fear the bugs in proprietary stuff where I can never be sure if they get fixed and how.
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Looking at the sudden new content on the TrueCrypt site, the most plausible explanation for me was that it was an attempt to tip people off that they had been tracked down and sent a National Security Letter, without actually breaking the law. Why else would they advocate using Apple’s disk encryption with no encryption selected? Why else would they advocate use of software from Microsoft, who we know cannot be trusted? It smelled like a warrant canary.
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Due to various concerns, TrueCrypt is about to be replaced in Tails, either by tcplay or cryptsetup.
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A month ago we announced the Core Infrastructure Initiative, a project to help fund critical open source projects that we all rely upon but that are in need of support. We moved quickly to organize the initiative and the industry reaction was swift and enthusiastic. I am proud to report on significant progress that I believe matches the quality of the reaction to the formation of the project.
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Some of the world’s best-known security researchers claim to have been threatened with indictment over their efforts to find vulnerabilities in internet infrastructure, amid fears American computer hacking laws are perversely making the web less safe to surf.
Many in the security industry have expressed grave concerns around the application of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), complaining law enforcement and lawyers have wielded it aggressively at anyone looking for vulnerabilities in the internet, criminalising work that’s largely benign.
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At Apple’s WWDC conference today they have just unveiled Metal, a new 3D graphics API to compete with OpenGL.
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Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 10:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Newcastle wraps itself in shackles for the next three years
Summary: The latest example of the British public sector snubbing local software companies, instead bringing malicious software from abroad (land of economic and political espionage) via a local proxy (reseller)
Three years ago I traveled to Newcastle in order to configure GNU/Linux servers there; I was surrounded by a Windows-dominated environment and a systems administrator who was only skilled enough to handle Microsoft stuff. The sad thing is that in the public and private sector in the UK there is a lot of software with NSA back doors, including (and primarily) Microsoft software.
According to this news report, the latest Newham-style nonsense has spread to Newcastle, with cost analysis totally ignoring the worth of security and autonomy. To quote the article: “Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has chosen to renew its enterprise agreement with Microsoft rather than opt for cloud-based service provision or open source products.”
Well, cloud-based services usually mean “surveillance-friendly” or “surveillance-ready”, so these are not the real alternative anymore. The article continues: “The deal, for the provision of software assurance and server licences through a certified reseller for the next three years, replaces the council’s previous five year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement which expired on 31st May 31.
“The renewal, which commenced 1st June, will ensure that the corporation’s desktops and servers can be used and updated within legal requirements.
Why choose spyware and why not explore Free/Open Source software? Well, the article says: “Having considered options such as subscription-based agreements, cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) provision and open source products, which are already in use by the council for its anti-virus and email filtering systems, Newcastle-under-Lyme decided it was better to renew its existing agreement – expected to total £263,284 in costs over its three-year lifetime.”
This does not even seem to cover support. They have just paid for spyware to go inside their server room/s, negatively affecting many British citizens. Did they even consult the public at all? As Munich has demonstrated, nobody needs Microsoft in the public sector; all it does it spy on everything and everyone. █
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