German armed forces ban Microsoft software

[MowSow]

The German foreign office and Bundeswehr are pulling the plugs on Microsoft software, citing security concerns, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel. Spiegel claims that German security authorities suspect that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has 'back door' access to Microsoft source code, and can therefore easily read the Federal Republic's deepest secrets.
Clicky

 

[j@cko]

LOL.. this is funny.
The LAUGH of the day.

 

[Elledan]

Uhm... well... I posted this also in the Operating Systems forum thinking that that would be the most logical place

Anyway, I think that this is just so comical, I couldn't help laughing out loud when I saw it at /.

 

[compuwiz1]

Paranoia.

 

[Batti]

Keep laughing, but this may be a serious issue for Microsoft. China feels the same way

 

[Mingon]

wasnt there a problem before involving diskeeper on windows 2000 and germany banning it because of the directors scientology links

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

Germans are no fools, they must have strong reasons for their actions.

First, they probably remember too well WWII and the allies breaking their ENIGMA encrypting system
On the other hand, beside tactical reasons, the Germans might want to stop paying large sums of money to M$ for the software and start ordering the products from home companies (Siemens, Deutsche Telekom), helping the IT industry.

 

[j@cko]

or even use LINUX??

 

[Shagga]

Hey, it's possible. Unlikely, but possible.

 

[bacillus]

hehe, another the register scoop!

 

[PliotronX]

I wonder if the German armed forces are wearing penguin hats..

 

[sMashPiranha]

I wouldn't be at all surprised.

 

[MadRat]

Well, there are at least three backdoors identified in Microsoft Win2k product just since February. Why not be paranoid? Its also a crutch to have your web browser spuirting personal details every time you access a web site with no way to turn those tidbits of information off. Whats good for the marketers is piss poor for the consumer, regardless if its civilian or military. Microsoft had no right to open everyone up to snooping by default.

 

[marcio]

I don't know why people think this is laughable. This is the German national security agency after all. To you people laughing, do you really think that if the situation was reversed the NSA or the US military would use such software? I doubt that very much.
If I were the head of such agencies, if I had a choice, I wouldn't use a foreign made software that you don't know 100% how it works.

 

[TravisBickle]

"eminently sensible"
the point is that even 11 year old can hack into MS products, because MS is everywhere. national security doesn't want to be staked on a foreign freely available program.

 

[Ryan]

Hah! nutty people

 

[emjem]

Woooooo, their secrets are soooo important to our success. Just don't see how we're going to live without them.

Heh, heh, like the US goobermint needs MS software to find out what they're up to?

 

[JellyBaby]

Hmmm, I could have swore the US government forced MS into telling it how to decode a Word document's secret identifier. They did that to trace the originator of one of those Word macro viruses I believe. Caught the fella, too.

Then there's the talk of how the NSA used secret holes in Winny to learn about Saddum's troop movements during the Gulf War.

 

[Pariah]

"Then there's the talk of how the NSA used secret holes in Winny to learn about Saddum's troop movements during the Gulf War."

Why would they need that to predict troop movements? The US Gov't had CNN like the rest of us.

 

[MadRat]

The US tapped phone lines for snooping on Saddam. Iraq was not a Windows-friendly environment! Hell, the Iraqi's use euipment that isn't exactly running on any industrial standard. Military equipment cannot afford security breaches like that.

Where'd you ever get that idea?

 

[JellyBaby]

I believe the rumor start (or at least was first reported) by The Register. And it may not have been troop movements but some other intel.

Anyway, point is the German gov't. has valid concerns about security in general in MS products if not specific cases of countries spying on them via Windows.

 

[kylef]

This is really overboard and completely laughable.

I find it funny that the GERMANS are worried about national security in the first place. After all, we're supposed to be allies here...

But if they're so convinced that MS has put "NSA Backdoors" into their software, why not demonstrate such tactics? Do they have any evidence? If they did, it would be a HUGE coup. As of right now, it seems like a silly ploy to slander Microsoft and the US Gov't.

After all, if you didn't already know, most of the Internet hacker attacks directed at Microsoft, Yahoo, and other larger US tech companies over the past few years have originated from small universities in Germany and Eastern Europe... They give their graduate students entirely too much time to graduate

The European Union has already had its target sights set on Microsoft for a while now, and would just LOVE to see its international market fly away, opening room for competition from European companies...

Something about this stinks to me, and for once, I don't think it's Microsoft.

Kyle

 

[MadRat]

When you buy the software you should get access to source code. This would prevent the whole fiasco. So they charge more since they release source code in the deal, no matter. Everyone gets a product that they can debug and double-check themself for backdoors.

 

[emjem]

Hll, our own US government attachs MS. WTF? Isn't that like trying to kill the goose?

 

[MadRat]

This goose doesn't exactly lay golden eggs in this case, so no problem there...