Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 06:40:12 -0500 From: Brooks Isoldi <bjisoldiat_private> As much as I hate to defend Microsoft, we can't damn them if they do AND damn them if they don't. The Open Source community has been wanting Microsoft to open its code. It's doing so on a very limited basis, to governments only, maybe industry reliant on Microsoft frameworks next. However, if Microsoft did this on a completely open basis...China would still have access to it. But...Sources and Techniques was a great document and a good read. Perhaps Sidewinder would be another good read :-) Brooks Isoldi The Intelligence Network http://www.intellnet.org 877-581-3724 [Voicemail/Fax] -=- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 16:55:43 +0100 From: "leon @ kuunders" <leonat_private> > Russia, the U.K. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have > already signed up to participate in the GSP, and Microsoft is in > talks with more than 30 countries, territories and organizations > about the program. I don't know, but with a lot of "hacks" originating from Russia and China, it doesn't seem like a wise idea to hand over a "smoking gun" to these countries. I can think of numerous "what .. if" scenario's in which knowledge of the source code of the #1 computer desktop environment can be used to exploit these programs. If Microsoft is handing the source to these countries, they might as well publish it completely on the internet. --Leon. -=- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 02:56:04 -0600 (CST) From: Anonymous The Chinese already have access to the source code. Microsoft maintains an internal gateway to their office in Beijing from which the employees in China can freely explore the MS internal network in Redmond. This became painfully clear when, in 1999, I traced a connection to my build machine (an Alpha 21164 Rawhide) back to the Beijing gateway from a chinese hacking tool called proxyhunter. This was in July of 1999. The PAL and HAL code for the Alpha family of processors was compromised (stolen) from my build machine. I reported this to MS, they did nothing. I reported this to my superiors at Digital. There was nothing they could do, the source code was gone. Compaq had just purchased Digital and by the end of August, NT on the Alpha platform was history. In October of 1999 the PRC announced that they had cloned the Alpha processor (a great achievement, right?) and fairly soon afterwards began testing ICBMs that could reach the US from China. Plenty of people already have access to the source code for Windows. The question is, why would you want it? - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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