Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Moles Galore

Close-up of a mole



Summary: Former Microsoft employees (or existing ones) who have a lot of influence are being tracked for their impact on other companies or establishments to be understood

IN the previous post we showed how Microsoft entryism at Amazon led to severe consequences (Microsoft also hijacked Yahoo! through personnel). This post accumulates new examples from the past couple of weeks -- examples where prominent Microsoft employees are entering companies/entities other than Microsoft.



Here is a U.S. Forensic Technology Solutions Practice getting 'poisoned' by Microsoft staff:

Edward Gibson, Former Chief Cyber Security Advisor for Microsoft LTD in the U.K., Joins PricewaterhouseCoopers' U.S. Forensic Technology Solutions Practice



PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) announced today that Edward Gibson, the former Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft LTD in the United Kingdom, has joined the firm as a director in PwC's U.S. Forensics Technology Solutions practice. Mr. Gibson will focus on helping organizations with issues involving investigating economic espionage, complex money laundering, cyber fraud schemes and intellectual property theft. He will be based in PwC's McLean, VA (Tysons Corner) office and will service a wide range of clients in matters of security breach investigation and overall risk management strategies.

While serving as Microsoft's Chief Cyber Security Advisor in the U.K., Mr. Gibson was the chief spokesperson and point of contact for Microsoft Ltd U.K. on all matters of cyber security and IT infrastructure risk management for global businesses based in the U.K., government, law enforcement and security services, press and consumers.


Another new example:

Singapore based Georgie Farmer, Asia Travel Manager, Microsoft, was unanimously appointed to a second term as Regional Chair, ACTE Asia-Pacific by the Association of Corporate Travel Executive’s (ACTE) Board of Directors during a 20 January meeting.


Juniper has absorbed several Microsoft executives, including the current CEO [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The company recently settled fraud allegations using $169,000,000 and there is the following news: "Juniper Networks Protects Customers from New Microsoft Vulnerabilities"

Microsoft's new guardians, eh?

The Boston press writes about Microsoft's former AstroTurfer Don Dodge [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] and other news sites write about the extension of this Microsoft community of boosters/employees whom Microsoft is trying to keep under control:

Microsoft is telling some of its biggest fans to stay off Twitter for the next few days.

That's because right now Microsoft is holding its annual MVP Summit -- a gathering of over 1,000 people who are, according to Microsoft, "committed to helping others get the most out of their experience with Microsoft products and technologies."


Lastly, former Microsoft employee Howard Schmidt, who is now the US cybersecurity czar [1, 2], is commenting about his former employer in this new interview: [via]

That’s why you see a lot of the activity going on, Microsoft with their End to End Trust program, Oracle, with some of the security programs they’ve got. You see a lot of private industry critical infrastructure owners and operators saying, “Well, we get the message. We understand that we’ve got to do things differently. We’re gonna put a higher priority on security.”


Schmidt worked at Microsoft, so he ought to know that their software is not secure. Brian Valentine, who was a top Windows executive before becoming a top Amazon executive (SVP), said that Microsoft's products "just aren't engineered for security."

Earlier today we explained why Microsoft's failure at security may have cost trillions of dollars. It's because approximately one in two machines is a zombie PC if it runs Windows and the effect it has on online banking gets explained in the following new post:

Man in the Browser a.k.a MITB is a new breed of attacks whose primary objective is to spy on browser sessions (mostly banking) and in that process intercept and modify the web page contents transparently in the background. In a classic MITB attack, It's a very likely that what the user is seeing on his/her browser window is not something which the actual server sent. Similarly, what server sees on the other end might not be what user was intending to send. Why MITB? How different is it from conventional browser hijacking? I'll explain that shortly.


This has a direct effect on the banks. Will the banks mind? Well, sadly enough, they too are connected to Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], sometimes owing to Microsoft staff like Susan Hauser who lies on behalf of large banks in order to promote racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

Recent Techrights' Posts

Your Site Should Implement Its Own Search (Before It's Too Late)
GAFAM was never trustworthy
Maintenance Reminder
We'll carry on publishing
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VIII - Mobbing and Silencing of Dissenting Staff
that's the very cornerstone of functional democracies with real opposition parties
 
EPO Strike a Week From Now, After That Strikes Can Become Permanent
A week from tomorrow there will be another strike
The Only Non-IBM Staff in Fedora Council/Leadership Attacks Booting Freedom (Just Like the Master Wants)
Last week IBM laid off almost 1,000 people in Confluent and the media didn't write anything about it, so don't expect anyone in what's left of the media to comment on Fedora's demise and silent layoffs at Red Hat
Just Like a Founder of XBox Said, Microsoft XBox is Collapsing, Management Continue to Jump Ship
Nowadays Microsoft tries to promote this idea that Windows is XBox and XBox is Windows
Links 22/03/2026: Slop Triggers Emergency at Meta, Energy Prices Rise Sharply
Links for the day
Links 22/03/2026: Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' in Legal Trouble (Plagiarism, Distortion, Misrepresentation); Facebook/Meta Kills Off "Horizon Worlds"
Links for the day
Racism Dressed Up as "Choice"
Racism is rampant at IBM
Probably an All-Time Record
Our investment in our own SSG is paying off
Gemini Links 22/03/2026: LLM Slop Attacks USENET, Announcing Pig (New Game in Gemini Protocol)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 21, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, March 21, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 18 Out of 200: Third Parties Funding Attacks on the Messengers, Lawsuits Against GAFAM-Critical Voices That Uphold Real National Security
Women are like kryptonite to them
Never Trust People Who Write Their Own Wikipedia Pages (Vanity Pages About Themselves) or Ask Friends to Do So. Also: Jono Bacon is Married to Microsoft.
We'd hardly be the first to point out Wikipedia isn't what it seems
No Tolerance for Attacks on Family Members
Being a Free software activist ought not lead to "collateral damage" like attacks on family members, including doxing
Sirius Open Source is Just a Zombie Firm With Shell Entities
Many companies fake their health and their size
Communities Can Only Survive When Trust Prevails
PCLinuxOS is still a vibrant and authentic community
Techrights Was Always a Community Site
The harder we're attacked, the more people participate in the site
Behind the PR Smokescreen and Microsoft-Sponsored Chaff, Microsoft Layoffs in "AI" Alleged This Month
In an age when ~1,000 simultaneous layoffs aren't enough to receive any media coverage, what can we expect remaining publishers to tell us about Microsoft layoffs in 2026?
Bluewashing at Confluent: Some Workers to Leave Within 3 Months (IBM Mass Layoffs)
Is the "era of AI" an era when none of the media will mention over 800 layoffs? [...] There's a lesson here about the state of the contemporary media, not just IBM and bluewashing
Microsoft OpenAI, Drowning in Debt and Forced to Make Significant Cuts (as Reports Reveal This Month), Does Hiring Disguised as "Takeovers" to Fake Value or Alleged Potential
Remember what happened to Skype last year
Reader Shares Recent Memes on Slop and 'Coding' by LLMs
"just some funny memes I thought were relevant to current coverage."
Slop Does Not Replace Art, It Contaminates Everything With Reckless Nonsense
many Computer Scientists do not want programs to get contaminated by slop
Coders Don't Just Reject 'Vibe Coding' Because They're "Luddites", They Just Know the True Cost of Slop
if some programmer says slop sucks, don't rush to assume selfishness or defence of one's occupation
When Nobody Else Covers the News
There's an obvious "media blackout" regarding the mass layoffs
Links 21/03/2026: David Botstein Dies, Slop as Censorship Apparatus
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2026: Historic Ada Docs; The Lurking LLM on the SmolNet
Links for the day
HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure
"HSBC is planning on cutting as many as 20,000 jobs in the near future as the company allies with AI revolution."
Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago
"the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 20, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 20, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 17 Out of 200: A Long Track Record of Online Abuse, Then Choosing a Low-Cost Law Firm to Muzzle People Who Have Illuminated This Abuse for Over a Decade
Censorship by targeting ISPs and webhosts isn't unprecedented
Plagiarism in "Linux" Clothing (LLM Slop in linuxiac.com, LinuxTeck.com, and linuxsecurity.com)
The net effect of those slopfarms is very negative
Links 20/03/2026: Facebook Weaponised Politically, Openwashing by LF and NVIDIA, Encyclopedia Britannica Sues Microsoft Proxy for Plagiarism
Links for the day
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders)
For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').
It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware
Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet
Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic
5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants)
hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night
Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
"Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers."
continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026