[kictanet] Is Windows 8 a Trojan horse for the NSA? The German Government thinks so

[Walubengo J]

@Muraya,

I used to think Android is "open"?  Meaning the comparison to Windows would not be appropriate in that if someone sneaked in spy-software in Android, I (and many others) can sniff it out, but if someone sneaked in some spy software in Windows, only Microsoft and perhaps the US govt would know?

Incidentally what @Ikua raises in not far-fetched.  In 2010, it is widely believed the US /Israeli Governments unleashed a worm called "stuxnet" that chewed up the Iranian nuclear plants to a halt. The mode of delivery is also widely believed as being through one of the many regular Windows updates that we so faithfully do every week or month over the net.

In other words, most Listers here and across the globe do have the "stuxnet" worm on their machines but it is in sleep mode simply because their organisations do not run nuclear reactors with specific circuitry.  This worm was clever enough to only wake up upon sensing certain "signature" frequencies originating from certain circuitry that was dominant in Iranian nuclear reactors.

Obviously only Microsoft could be able to see the additional logic/payload in that particular update.  Contrast this to updates whose code is "open"...

For those technically inclined, you can pick up the story @

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

walu.

  





________________________________
 From: S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>
To: jwalu at yahoo.com 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Is Windows 8 a Trojan horse for the NSA? The German Government thinks so
 


If we worry about 200 Million Windows 8.1 PCs (by 2015) how about 1 Billion mobile devices running Android by 2015?


Blessings

Murigi / Stanley Muraya

"Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city." Prov 16:32



On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 3:12 PM, Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com> wrote:

The German Government is now deeply suspicious that the Trusted 
Platform Module (TPM) technology built into a growing number of Windows 8 PCs and tablets is creating a gigantic back door for NSA surveillance, 
leaked documents have suggested.
>Documents from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs obtained by German title Zeit Online uncover the alleged unease of officials at the direction of version 2.0 of the standard being developed under the auspices of the multi-vendor 
Trusted Computing Group (TCG).
>TPM has been marketed as a security and Digital Rights Management 
(DRM) technology since its appearance in 2006, but version 2.0 would 
embed a chip on every PC that has complete control over which programs 
can and can’t run, a setting that can’t be over-ridden under Windows 8. 
The chip is also where the cryptographic data is stored for Windows 
BitLocker and it enables remote administration.
>
>Please read more here
>
>-- 
>----------------------------------------------------
>Kind Regards,
>Evans Ikua,
>
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