11.27.12
Gemini version available ♊︎French Government Punished for Using Microsoft Windows
Acadian flag
Summary: France is up in “Flame” where software freedom is still not embraced
A while back when we wrote about Stuxnet we showed a corporate victim. What happens when Windows Update Cracked, a relative of Stuxnet, hits a Western government? Well, France is paying the high price. Here:
The news is sensational, according the French magazine L’Express the offices of France’s former president Sarkozy were victim of a cyber attack, but what is even more remarkable is that for the offensive was used the famous malware Flame.
On the origin of the malware still persist a mystery, many security experts attribute it to joint work of Israel and US development team.
Let’s remind that according the analysis on Flame source code conducted by Kaspersky the malware is linked to Stuxnet, a version of the famous virus shared a module with the spy toolkit.
A contributor of ours wrote: “I imagine this is one of the reasons France is moving away from Windows.”
Articles including the above article fail to call out Windows. As our contributor put it: “This article fails to mention Microsoft or Windows or France’s move away from both. Non free software like Windows is better able to violate people’s privacy than any malware author.”
Which government is next then? Perhaps now they know that using blobs made in other countries — blobs that can auto-update (i.e. hijack the machine) — is a threat to national security. It’s no speculation but a fact. █
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Gizmo said,
November 28, 2012 at 8:53 am
Acadia is in Canada
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Yes, I know.
Gizmo Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 8:58 am
Ok, just making sure you knew that you used a french Canadian flag for “French Government Punished for Using Microsoft Windows”
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 9:13 am
I first used this image in the year 2010 because I could not find a decent royalty-free French flag. http://techrights.org/2010/06/29/procurement-corrupted/
mcinsand said,
November 28, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Using Windows on the Internet is not like running with scissors so much as skateboarding down a steep hill with a pair of scissors in each hand. Avoiding Windows is a matter of national security whether the nation’s government is aware enough to realize it or not. In the US, an agent with the State Department told me that agents can be fired if caught using IE, given that it is such a high security risk. Maybe, just maybe, we can start to see more progress. However, in the event of such breaches like this, governments need to hold hearings, and the idiots that allowed sensitive information on Windows computers should be the focus, preferably with the potential of criminal charges for irresponsible negligence.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
I am quite surprised that they haven’t moved off Windows already. Maybe the incident was a good thing; that’ll rush them a bit.