Bonum Certa Men Certa

Iran Uses Novell and Microsoft Software to Make Bombs

Missiles



Summary: Novell and Microsoft a matter of national security, but whose?

THERE is an old slur about GNU/Linux being the operating system for "terrorists" (or something along those lines). Why does Microsoft get a free ride?



According to The Register, SLES 10 and Windows power some of Iran's nuclear programs.

That second generation box, which has 16 dual-core and another 16 quad-core Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices, 98 GB of total memory, and 182 gigaflops of aggregate computing power, runs Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 as well as Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.

[...]

While ComputerWorld and Iran Watch, a group dedicated to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, made much of the AMD iron and didn't say anything about the Novell and Microsoft software, the real worry is what application software Iran is able to get its hands on to do finite element analysis and fluid mechanics in the design of the rockets.



To use some sarcasm, did Iran buy its SLES coupons from Microsoft? For software patents, obviously? Novell and Microsoft could probably issue a press release to rave about this deployment and quote the army regarding the "interoperability" advantage or "peace of mind" they receive from these coupons. Now, if only they could be sold "peace", too.

In other security news, Microsoft's friend Finjan [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] is warning (again) about Windows botnets. From Heise:

Security services provider Finjan has released a report from its Malicious Code Research Center analysing a trading platform for botnets. According to the report, the underground trade in infected computers offers a comprehensive menu of botnets at locations all around the world. Some Far Eastern networks can be had for a mere $5 a thousand PCs.


Watch the role and effect of Windows malware in this process. From the BBC (days ago):

"This emerging threat is becoming very real and is already affecting millions and millions of websites. 30,000 web pages are affected every day according to the likes of Microsoft and the security firm Sophos," said Mr Daswani who was a senior security engineer at Google.


Ask the FBI about Windows security [1, 2].

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