Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft -- Like David Cameron -- Attacking the Computer Security Industry

Microsoft is essentially a snitching company, unconditionally serving those in power

Police



Summary: Microsoft's latest moves that help expose its real policy when it comes to computer security and people's privacy

THE OTHER day we mentioned demands for back doors, which basically would make any piece of proprietary software (where back doors cannot be removed) utterly useless for any serious work because secure communication is a cornerstone of computing in a connected environment. We also mentioned Microsoft hiding many of its existing back doors even more aggressively, essentially telling users nothing about their easy-to-compromise systems.



"Always remember that Microsoft makes money from spying on users (government subsidies for the back door access), including in cases where this directly benefits Microsoft's business interests"This article from the British press says that this "move was criticised by some security professionals, who said it would hinder organisations’ ability to quickly test and deploy Microsoft’s updates."

They should just quit relying on Windows. Sony can tell them how reliance on Microsoft Windows already caused them to be doxxed against, potentially costing the company many billions of dollars in damages. One security-oriented professional "called the change, which was made with no advance notice, an “assault” on IT security teams."

Microsoft "assaults" the IT security industry. It attacks security itself, too. To quote further from the article: "Other industry observers said the change may have resulted from a broad reorganisation at Microsoft that began in 2013 and included large-scale layoffs in the middle of last year, with the Trustworthy Computing security group shut down in September. The reorganisation is itself the result of a broad industry shift toward mobile devices which has diminished the importance of Microsoft products such as Windows.

"Prominent figures at MSRC have left Microsoft, including senior development manager Jonathan Ness and Dustin Childs, group manager of response communications. In November Microsoft discontinued a long-running webcast in which engineers gave details on the monthly updates.

"Microsoft said in a statement that while ANS is no longer public, the company may also “take the appropriate actions to reach customers” if it determines that “broad communication” is needed for a specific situation."

So Microsoft Windows bug doors are becoming more secretive now. Nice timing given Cameron's call for back doors in everything; he would be so proud. Remember that Microsoft tells the NSA (and hence GCHQ too) about these bug doors well before they are patched, even 3 months in advance (Microsoft does not bother to patch holes until much later, if ever).

GNU/Linux is completely different because the code is visible and everyone can patch holes as soon as they are revealed. There are huge software repositories for which source code is available, so even underlying applications -- not just the operating system -- can be fixed. On Windows it is a sordid mess of random downloads of binaries from the Web and so-called 'crapware' that comes preinstalled with Windows and often has malicious behaviour. As Jim Lynch put it the other day: "I guess the bottom line here is to try to avoid being the sucker by installing crapware in the first place, regardless of the operating system you are using. If you don’t understand or aren’t sure about what’s being installed THEN DON’T INSTALL IT on your system. And only install software from trusted sources that don’t engage in the freeware bundling shenanigans."

Free software has none of these issues. The user is in charge.

Caspar Bowden, whom Microsoft fired for 'daring' to care about security and privacy, talks about Microsoft's publicity stunt case (intended to make it look like Microsoft cares about security and privacy). He now says he hopes Microsoft's publicity stunt will go down in flames and here is why: "His reasoning is that the US government can use other legal instruments, such as FISA 702 or Executive Order 12333, to brush aside such niceties as Safe Harbor or binding corporate rules (BCR) to get its hands on such data perfectly legally any time it likes, and as such the whole case is a smokescreen that actually suits both parties.

""Even if Microsoft wins that case, and I hope they don't because that'll just shore up the whole rotten system, it will make no difference to surveillance by the NSA under FISA 702 or Executive Order 12333 [see below]," he told Computing.

"Bowden - who was the chief privacy adviser to 40 national technology officers at Microsoft before he was "let go" in 2011 after revealing what FISA 702 implies for the firm's non-US customers - believes that this is all for show. It is part of a campaign of "cloudwashing" on the part of government and the industry, he says, that deliberately conflates data security - over which US cloud companies and their customers can take an active role - and government surveillance, over which, for legal reasons, they cannot. FISA 702 allows the US government to install surveillance apparatus inside the data centres of US companies. These interventions are covered by the espionage law, and anyone revealing their existence could face a lengthy jail sentence, as Yahoo's Marissa Mayer revealed."

Bowden is a Brit speaking about Ireland in the British press. We are happy to see him using the term "cloudwashing" -- a term we have used a lot for years. A lot of the pro-cloud hype is about increasing surveillance; it's often the business model. Always remember that Microsoft makes money from spying on users (government subsidies for the back door access), including in cases where this directly benefits Microsoft's business interests.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
 
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
When You Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster
It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital
Links for the day
Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis"
Links for the day
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day