A Stuxnet admission

Published

US Government (and Allies) Uses Microsoft Windows to Attack Other Nations

--User:Schestowitz|Schestowitz 00:43, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

US Government (and Allies) Uses Microsoft Windows to Attack Other Nations

Proprietary software is technological warfare

Summary:

"Senior Defense Official Caught Hedging on U.S. Involvement in Stuxnet" is the sort of report we are always hoping for. It further exposes not only distressing government involvement with regards to technology but also reinforces the very real dangers of Windows and by relation other proprietary Microsoft software. Wired has covered this special report:

">http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/defense-department-stuxnet/"> In “CodeWars: America’s Cyber Threat,” correspondent Melissa Lee asks Lynn outright: “Was the U.S. involved in any way in the development of Stuxnet?”

Lynn’s response is long enough that an inattentive viewer might not notice that it doesn’t answer the question.

“The challenges of Stuxnet, as I said, what it shows you is the difficulty of any, any attribution and it’s something that we’re still looking at, it’s hard to get into any kind of comment on that until we’ve finished our examination,” Lynn replies.

“But sir, I’m not asking you if you think another country was involved,” Lee presses. “I’m asking you if the U.S. was involved. If the Department of Defense was involved.”

“And this is not something that we’re going to be able to answer at this point,” Lynn finally says.

For background, also see:

1. [cref 39297]
2. [cref 35578]
3. [cref 39423]
4. [cref 39625]
5. [cref 39898]
6. [cref 36549]
7. [cref 35407]
8. [cref 35552]
9. [cref 35578]
10. [cref 35644]
11. [cref 35119]
12. [cref 37012]
13. [cref 38815]
14. [cref 38907]
15. [cref 39217]
16. [cref 39631]
17. [cref 39731]
18. [cref 40111]
19. [cref 40732]
20. [cref 41800]
21. [cref 42046]
22. [cref 42278]
23. [cref 42407]
24. [cref 42979]
25. [cref 43844]
26. [cref 44376]
27. [cref 45793]
28. [cref 45850]
29. [cref 45828]

Remember that the NSA, which a;sp provided Microsoft-friendly Web statistics a few months back, recommends Vista 7 [[cref 48722 1], [cref 48413 2], [cref 48337 3]], secretly because the back doors are 'free', as in free of charge, with all editions. It will probably recommend Vista 8 as well. Unfortunately for Microsoft and the NSA, Windows is losing its foothold. Cringely writes about the falling usage in "Steve Ballmer’s Nightmare":

">http://www.cringely.com/2011/05/steve-ballmers-nightmare/"> Ballmer confirmed back in January that the next major version of Windows would have a version for power-sipping ARM processors, which are mainly installed in smart phones and tablet computers. He reinforced this idea more recently by explicitly saying Windows 8 would run on all the hardware platforms Microsoft currently supports right down to phones, calling the next version of Windows Microsoft’s “riskiest yet. ”

Ballmer is correct: Windows 8 is make-or-break for Microsoft.

Envision a world where everyone used programs with source code that could be audited. It certainly would Microsoft's and some of the NSA's deceptions nearly impossible to say the least.█