Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 07:43:38 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: A Security Question
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Strong, Lee wrote:
> 	Ron Kean provided a very useful and very readable comment on the
> vulnerabilities of Microsoft products "A geeky question."  However, I find
> one theory  to be highly unlikey.  He speculated that Microsoft produces a
> suite of deliberately vulnerable products in order that U.S. intelligence
> agencies could more easily peruse the contents of private computers.  This
> theory is contrary to good intelligence practice.  If you are a snoop, you
> want your target to relax and take zero security measures.  That makes your
> surveillance easier.  The last thing that you want to do is make a mess of
> your target's things or otherwise draw attention to your target's
> vulnerabilites because that will cause him to take countermeasures that make
> your job harder.

I think that Ron was making the "Secret Master of Fandom" argument -- it
couldn't get this bad accidentally.

That said, a couple of years ago, somebody found a symbol called _NSAKEY
  in Windows NT.  According to Microsoft, some programmer got cute with
the names.  However, as the story came out, it showed that Microsoft has
a really profound ignorance of computer security.  Google will get you
more information than you probably want.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."