How Microsoft helps the NSA

[Detonate]

You are going to love this.
http://tinyurl.com/lcdyowp

[woodsmoke]

Detonate I did not know whether to laugh or cry!

A "grey box" appeared on my Win XP screen the very FIRST SECOND that I got onto "high speed cable internet"!

It was..... offering to provide ...ummmmm "enhancement pills"....

I immediately shut down and called my cable company and they said...

"Oh yeah, that is Microsoft trying to see if you will click it. It doesn't do any thing and self destructs."

I ask ...ummm why...

"They are testing to see how many people are stupid enough to click something for when they start marketing their security stuff".

So....what do I do I ask...

"LOL....use IE5 what is what we use here".

IE5 was an older version of Internet Explorer which was, for some reason, "in the wild". But I did not know that.

IE5 was the very first introduction I had to the world of "alternate software" that was not Apple, or Texas Instruments, or Commodore, etc.

And.....I was introduced to the vast world of spyware/malware/virii etc. and ended up at Castle Cops...

BUT>>...more importantly I then knew in my bones just how predatory Microsith is.

And then ... I read this from Detonate's link:

But still, the biggest software company on Earth is holding off on its blue-screen-of-death problems to turn them into real-life spy features, an impressive feat that will no doubt frustrate consumers: We are, after all, waiting for our computers to work so the nation's spy services — almost certainly including the National Security Agency, given its massive espionage umbrella — can take advantage of the problems with them first. their mistakes first.

So is lead the child.....so acts the adult....or.... predatory company!

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

From the Bloomberg article, the apparent source for Atlantic Wire:

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world’s largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft (MSFT) and other software or Internet security companies have been aware that this type of early alert allowed the U.S. to exploit vulnerabilities in software sold to foreign governments, according to two U.S. officials. Microsoft doesn’t ask and can’t be told how the government uses such tip-offs, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, said those releases occur in cooperation with multiple agencies and are designed to give government “an early start” on risk assessment and mitigation. In an e-mailed statement, Shaw said there are “several programs” through which such information is passed to the government, and named two which are public, run by Microsoft and for defensive purposes.

Seems a little sensational to me. All software companies report vulnerabilities to the US-CERT, which works with NIST to maintain the NVD (National Vulnerability Database). Included in this database is the full set of known vulnerabilities tracked under the CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) index, a joint project of MITRE and DHS. The NVD and CVE have been instrumental in helping manufacturers track vulnerabilities, in providing a communications framework, and in helping organizations conduct risk assessments.

I'm not ready -- yet -- to ascribe primary malicous intent with regards to the government collecting vulnerability details. But it doesn't surprise me that someone would use this information for nefarious purposes.

[GreyGeek]

When I made the following post a year ago:
http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...nd-WORKS/page3
I had no idea how extensive the NSA snooping was. Bottom line: they are snooping at EVERYTHING! As far as Skype is concerned their patented "Legal Intercept" allows them, or any other "Snowden" setting at a government keyboard, to monitor voice and video communications over Skype.

We learned earlier that FBI agents regularly write their own warrants, without a judge's signature. Now, we learn that NSA agents setting at their keyboards can use a variety of back doors to access the communications and data of ANYONE in the country, and at any time. We've also learned that government agencies are NOT above using the information they collect to harass political opponents of the administration. I guess Obama meant it when he said "We are going to punish our enemies and reward our friends.".

[Detonate]

It wasn't that many years ago that if people found out that the government was routinely intercepting and inspecting their personal mail it would have caused a rebellion. How low have we sunk?

[SteveRiley]

How low have we sunk?

Because TERRORISMISTS!!11!!111!!

[oshunluvr]

No, it's TERRORISMABLEICATION

[whatthefunk]

Whats sad is that doing all this is essentially handing a victory to the real terrorists. Americans are terrified and are now willing to have some of their freedoms taken from them. Even in the last ten years we can already see how slippery this slope is. What started with phone taps and illegal detention has now become surveillance on a massive scale and drones killing people accused of terrorism without trial around the world. Sad, sad state of affairs. Sometimes makes me want to throw my computers out the window and start writing letters again.

[SteveRiley]

I'm flying to Oakland today for Riverbed's annual Sharkfest conference, where I'm delivering two talks. While I waited in line at the gate, TSA agents were checking photo ID and boarding passes. All the sheople in line were only too happy to accept yet another intrusion. I stared straight ahead and made the guy ask for "my papers. Yes, such is our society now. Didn't we fight a cold war against exactly this behavior? I digress.

When he saw that I had no paper boarding pass but instead used the Alaska app on my phone, he didn't need to see that. He still wanted to see my ID. I said, "It's the same ID I showed to your compatriot at the security line, and I haven't changed since then." For a moment he seemed flummoxed, haha. He took the usual far-sighted squint at my passport and handed it back. What is it with these guys, are they all nearly blind? Guess so, if they can't even be good enough to land a college campus cop job.

It the tea-baggers want to focus their energies on something that deserves scorn, here is the perfect target. They should heap fire on the security apparatus like they do on the social safety net.

[GreyGeek]

I'm flying to Oakland today for Riverbed's annual Sharkfest conference, where I'm delivering two talks.

Wish I was there to listen!

What is it with these guys, are they all nearly blind? Guess so, if they can't even be good enough to land a college campus cop job.

They're high school graduates, or at least most of them are. Thinking logically, or for themselves, isn't in their DNA

It the tea-baggers want to focus their energies on something that deserves scorn, here is the perfect target. They should heap fire on the security apparatus like they do on the social safety net.

They tried, but the IRS shut down their fund raising by refusing to issue 501c's to them during a time span of two years before the election till now. In today's campaign environment it takes MILLIONS to wage any kind of political campaign. If you donors can't get tax excemptions and your opponants can it puts you at a decided disadvantage. Many conservative groups STILL have not recieved approval. It's the "punish our enemies" campaign Pres. Obama promised.

The "reward our friends" part is exemplified by the fact that
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...roups/2158831/

In February 2010, the Champaign Tea Party in Illinois received approval of its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 90 days, no questions asked. That was the month before the Internal Revenue Service started singling out Tea Party groups for special treatment. There wouldn't be another Tea Party application approved for 27 months.
In that time, the IRS approved perhaps dozens of applications from similar liberal and progressive groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows.
STORY: IRS gave liberals a pass; Tea Party groups put on hold
As applications from conservative groups sat in limbo, groups with liberal-sounding names had their applications approved in as little as nine months. With names including words like "Progress" or "Progressive," the liberal groups applied for the same tax status and were engaged in the same kinds of activities as the conservative groups.

In light of the recent revelations that the IRS has been unfairly targeting conservative groups, President Obama’s half-brother “got a sweetheart deal” from the IRS. According to the Daily Caller, Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing.

Not only that, Lerner retroactively approved, without being asked to do so, their tax exemption for the previous two years they were operating illegally.

What is really disturbing is that I can clearly recall the Watergate fiasco, in which "Tricky Dick" authorized the burglary of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate office complex. They were looking for the classified information that Daniel Ellsburg took and gave to the DNC. They were also going to plant bugs. The media kept the story alive for months, as well they should have. Nixon's claim that "as president nothing I do is illegal" didn't stop him from resigning after the impeachment became a guaranteed outcome if he continued to resist.

Within a MONTH after the five most recent scandals broke the major media are doing their best to ignore them, even to the point of recycling 40 year old Hoffa stories. Any mention at all is delegated to the back pages, and is usually condescending to the administration. For example, they suggest that the NSA snooping on ALL American citizens without a warrant is OK! And this AFTER the AP revealed that their emails were hacked by the administration, and CBS revealed that the computer of its reporter covering the Benghazi cover up was hacked into.

Things are more serious that many people realize, but as long as they get their welfare and disability checks, their free phones, and money back for taxes they didn't pay, what do they care. There are enough people sucking on the government teet, or streaming across the boarders and voting for more "entitlements", that the continued election of Socialist politicians will be guaranteed for years. Or at least until the Dollar collapses, which many are thinking will happen by the end of this year or the first of next year. That's when Executive Order 13603 comes into affect.
https://www.federalregister.gov/arti...s-preparedness
Which gives the president the right to declare a "threat to the national security of the United States" for any situation he deems as being such. When you read that EO notice the use of the word "procurement" and the definitions stated in Part VIII section 801.

“Civil transportation” also shall include direction, control, and coordination of civil transportation capacity regardless of ownership
...
“Energy” means all forms of energy including petroleum, gas (both natural and manufactured), electricity, solid fuels (including all forms of coal, coke, coal chemicals, coal liquification, and coal gasification), solar, wind, other types of renewable energy, atomic energy, and the production, conservation, use, control, and distribution (including pipelines) of all of these forms of energy
...
“Food resources” means all commodities and products, ... or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. “Food resources” also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.
...
“Food resources” means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. “Food resources” also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.
...
“Health resources” means drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate or prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or mental health conditions of the population.
...
“Head of each agency engaged in procurement for the national defense” means the heads of the Departments of State, Justice, the Interior, and Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the General Services Administration, and all other agencies with authority delegated under section 201 of this order.
...

Section 802 of PART VIII defines, for all practical purposes, the authority which replaces the Rule Of Law under the Constitution:

(2) the power of subpoena under section 705 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2155, with respect to (i) authorities delegated in parts II, III, and section 702 of this order, and (ii) the functions assigned to the Secretary of the Treasury in Executive Order 11858, as amended, provided that the subpoena power referenced in subsections (i) and (ii) shall be utilized only after the scope and purpose of the investigation, inspection, or inquiry to which the subpoena relates have been defined either by the appropriate officer identified in section 802(a) of this order or by such other person or persons as the officer shall designate.

Anyone willing to bet that between now and 2016 there won't arise a situation in which Obama will feel justified in taking dictatorial control of the US? Considering his politics and past political upbringing and associations, one could call it the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat".

[woodsmoke]

now GG, EVERYbody knows that only a right wing extreminst would do that! lol

woodsmoke

[tek_heretik]

Step one: create 'boogeyman' to instill fear in the masses, step two: control masses through said fear. I thought they killed the 'boogeyman' (Bin)? IMHO, vacate the middle east, give them no excuses and let them blow themselves up, but then again, it's all about the oil. There is an interesting article about cold fusion on Extreme Tech...let me dig up the url... http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...density-of-gas