> Although I have no hard evidence ... the truth is out there.<div> <div>No offense, but by speculating like they do on government's spying in on us through our computers whilst offering no hard evidence, they rather run the risk of coming across a little tin-foil hat.</div> <div>I don't know the Enquirer -- how respected a journal is it?</div><div>There are plenty of sound usability, technical, financial, ethical, political, and security-related reasons to both reject M$ & embrace Ubuntu with lots of hard evidence to back them -- so many that I doubt I'll ever get around to worrying on account of article as heavy on paranoia & thin on corroborating facts as that first link!</div> <div>Interesting second article, though, cheers.</div><div> Doug. <div class="gmail_quote">2009/10/22 David King <<a href="mailto:linuxman@avoura.com">linuxman@avoura.com</a>> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> Although I have no hard evidence, it was years ago that I heard about the US govt/FBI having a backdoor into Windows, and that all antivirus software by law cannot be allowed to detect what the FBI, etc., put onto people's computers. It might be true, it might be partially true. But the fact is that, AFAIK, this kind of spyware can exist on Windows PCs, but not so much in Linux. <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1025684/us-government-snoops-used-vista-to-spy-on-me" target="_blank">http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1025684/us-government-snoops-used-vista-to-spy-on-me</a> As for WGA, this is the Windows Genuine Advantage tool, that checks if the Windows you are using is valid or not, and if not, reports back to Microsoft. It is a type of spyware which might also be used to report other information to MS. <a href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39277823,00.htm" target="_blank">http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39277823,00.htm</a> This article suggests that early versions of WGA did report to Microsoft at every startup time, but later versions were modified not too after people complained about it. At least two of the people who replied to that article wrote that they switched to linux, and the WGA was one of the main reasons why I personally decided to return to linux and try to use it full time at home. As in all things, I expect the truth is out there. David King <div><div></div><div class="h5"> Alan Pope wrote: > 2009/10/22 Alan Lord (News) <<a href="mailto:alanslists@gmail.com">alanslists@gmail.com</a>>: > >> There was a story (poss. last year or earlier) about a FBI(or Police) >> conference in the US where MS apparently handed out a USB key to all >> delegates that had "backdoors" into Windows. If I get chance I'll try to >> search for it. >> >> > > Interesting, I'd not heard about that. Google turned up this:- > > <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080429/095514977.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080429/095514977.shtml</a> > > "Apparently, they're giving out special USB keys that simply get > around Microsoft's security, allowing the holder of the key to very > quickly get forensic information (including internet surfing history), > passwords and supposedly encrypted data off of a laptop." > > ... > > "Update: Some folks in the comments, and Ed Bott, claim that this post > is a misreading of the original story. The USB key includes a bunch of > standard tools, not access to a "backdoor." The confusion, on my part, > was due to the original article claiming that the device "can decrypt > passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity, as well as data > stored in the computer." In saying so, it appeared that the device > must have access to a backdoor to decrypt the password -- but an > update claims that it's merely "password security auditing > technologies."" > > Which could be achieved with one of many Linux based Live CDs or USB keys:- > > <a href="http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/03/10-best-security-live-cd-distros-pen-test-forensics-recovery/" target="_blank">http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/03/10-best-security-live-cd-distros-pen-test-forensics-recovery/</a> > > Cheers, > Al. > > -- <a href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</a> <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/</a> </div></div></blockquote></div> </div></div>