Microsoft update servers left all Azure RHEL instances hackable (2016)

Summary: Microsoft never cared about security; now that there are very serious breaches that expose entire nations Microsoft doubles down on the phony narrative wherein Microsoft protects users rather than spies on them (with back doors)

Microsoft is at it again, spreading racism and misinformation. Don't fall for it!

As we noted here this morning, Microsoft and its minions seem to be trying to change the subject after a very high-profile blunder (Microsoft tries to change if not invert the narrative with "China", as usual). The president resigned abruptly and despite efforts to change the narrative the mainstream media (corporate press) habitually mentioned it was a Microsoft failure (despite the 'casual xenophobia' from Microsoft).

"Canonical could be called out on its silence here.""It seems that the major breach of the hosted e-mail was not only Microsoft's fault," one person said, but it's rather revealing that they did not notice until federal authorities forced them to. Now, some weeks after the fact, they are begrudgingly admitting the problem but distracting from it by offering fake "security" tools [1, 2] as if security were an after-market add-on. Microsoft is not the answer, it is the question, to which the answer is, "no!" Linux distros and especially GNU/Linux distros need to be making hay. Canonical could be called out on its silence here.

Microsoft is the culprit, not the solution, and what Microsoft now offers boils down to, "now you can log who takes advantage of Microsoft's back doors..."

This sales/PR stunt may mean there are many cancellations. The layoffs impacting over 1,000 workers last week (mostly in sales) mean it's hard to make sales. As someone (probably from Microsoft) put it the other day: "Its a plan that we’ve seen before. US ingenuity to create something substantial like Azure…check. Make sure it has a solid foothold and large market share…..check. Run off the US talent and bring in the HB1’s to take their place….in progress now."

Azure always sucked, always had little adoption, and there were many layoffs there (for over 3 years already). Another comment there pointed out that the recent crises will make it hard to secure new contracts. ⬆