Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Windows Leads to Espionage and Blackmail: Latest Examples

"Our products just aren't engineered for security."

--Brian Valentine, Microsoft executive



Summary: Another news overview, detailing high-profile examples of high-cost Windows deployments (including the cost of litigation and settlement)

THE "IRS hack [is] far larger than first thought," according to this new report. It's no secret that the IRS is a Microsoft Windows shop (which was warned about security breaches as far back as 6 years ago), so it makes one wonder if Windows was to blame here, as in the OPM breach, the Sony breach, and most recently the Ashley Madison breach (not to mention Stuxnet in Iran). Based on our information, all these high-profile breaches one way or another involve Microsoft reliance. The corporate media failed to call out Windows, but a little bit of research often helps boil it down to Microsoft's NSA-accessible (through back doors) platforms.



"The parent company can now be sued into bankruptcy. It's the (hidden) high cost of Windows."Below is a new story which shows how Argentina targets [1] a large number of dissidents for surveillance using a fake "confidential document [that] was intended to infect a Windows computer." GNU/Linux users needn't worry about such things. Then of course there is the latest high-profile breach, the one affecting tens of millions of members of Ashley Madison (including almost ten thousand members of the military, including high-ranked ones), some of whom are suing [2] (what's the price of a failed marriage or blackmail?). The parent company can now be sued into bankruptcy. It's the (hidden) high cost of Windows. According to [3], "Security Was An Afterthought" at Ashley Madison. Well, that's quite evident. Ashley Madison is hardly even hiding it (DMCA rampage is not a substitute) and it has been made ever more obvious by the fact that they were using Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft and security are mutually exclusive, unlike Microsoft and insecurity. No secure application can be mounted on top of a base with back doors. It ought to be crystal clear after Snowden's many revelations.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. Inside the Spyware Campaign Against Argentine Troublemakers
    Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor known for doggedly investigating a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing, was targeted by invasive spy software downloaded onto his cellular phone shortly before his mysterious death. The software masqueraded as a confidential document and was intended to infect a Windows computer.


  2. Canadians are suing Ashley Madison because a lack of prophylactic protection
    A BRACE OF LAW FIRMS ARE BEHIND A class action lawsuit against Ashley Madison because it did not do enough to protect personal and private information.

    The class action case, from two Canadian law firms, argues that the hookup stations failed users by not protecting their information and for not deleting it after a fee had been paid to ensure its deletion. It seeks $578m.

    According to the New York Post the lawyers want some satisfaction for a cluster of punters who are currently wearing outraged expressions and regretting joining a site that does what it does in the way that it does it.


  3. 'Security Was An Afterthought,' Hacked Ashley Madison Emails Show
    It's already clear that, despite handling very sensitive data, Ashley Madison did not have the best security. Hackers managed to obtain everything from source code to customer data to internal documents, and the attackers behind the breach, who call themselves the Impact Team, made a mockery of the company's defenses in an interview.




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