Way to sell your customers down the river Billy Boy

[sproutster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/437967.stm

Windows 'back door' security alert
By Internet Correspondent Chris Nuttall

Cryptographers are sounding the alarm on a major security issue
involving Microsoft Windows that could eclipse its Hotmail public
relations disaster.

The findings of a computer security expert that America's National
Security Agency (NSA) may have been given a back door into every copy
of Windows 95, 98, NT4 and 2000 worldwide are being debated across the
Internet.

Microsoft has issued a strong denial of allegations of misuse of a
second encryption "key" in Windows.

<snip>

<unsnip>
Significantly, the key has the data tag "_NSAKEY" giving rise to
speculation that the NSA persuaded Microsoft to give it special access
to Windows in a secret deal.
</snip>

Shocking no? NO.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Shocking yes....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1177127&mesg_id=1177163

[wtmusic]

2. "Windows is installed on 90% of the world's computers..."

89%......88%.......

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy eh? and Linux is freely

downloadable and will educate a person about things computer related far more than Windoze does.

[KeepItReal]

3. Security expert said there's nothing you can do to secure your PC from NSA

I saw a guy say this on MSNBC when they were discussing the NSA phone scandal.

No anti-virus or spyware blockers are enough to secure your PC from the NSA. This guy sounded pretty confident about that.

There must be backdoors in Operating systems (Like Windows and maybe Mac OS) specifically for folks like the NSA.

[kevsand]

5. This story is from 1999.

What did the technology security community decide this really was? I vaguely remember that this turned out to be not that big a deal...