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MS Struggles to Discredit Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuff-to-read dept.

PrimeNumber writes "The Register has this interesting story about a supposedly "leaked" email from Microsoft Windows division VP Brian Valentine. Although half of it is admittedly suit/rah rah speak, the interesting nuggets mention use of Microsofts "Sun and Linux insiders"." The whole email is pretty funny actually.

6 of 723 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe it's just me by Wind_Walker · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Maybe it's just me, but I always react with skepticism whenever an "anonymous source" leaks a "classified document" to the public. For all we know, this e-mail was written up by Mark Jabroni from Nowhere, TX.

    What especially rings my "hoax/troll bell" is the last couple of lines about the message being "Microsoft Confidential" and how he can track any and all forwards. Give me a break.

    This article is complete bull. Nobody will ever be able to convince me otherwise. It was written by a well-intentioned Linux advocate and sent to The Register because it would give the people of Slashdot a reason to cheer.

    Nothing to see here, folks. These are not the e-mails you're looking for. Move along.

    1. Re:Maybe it's just me by Proaxiom · · Score: 5, Interesting
      how he can track any and all forwards. Give me a break.

      Actually you can. All the company e-mail is on Exchange Servers, and so anybody within the company forwarding it would be using those servers, and the admins can see it.

      He mentioned the problem with auto-forwarding, because if it gets forwarded once then they can no longer track it. Once it's off the company network it is out of view.

      Of course anyone can just as easily copy and paste the text into a web browser and send it from a Hotmail account, but security based on futile half-measures just makes me think this must be authentic Microsoft.

      Anyway, it is addressed to Microsoft Sales and Marketing people, who probably know none of the above. They would most likely take whatever the guy says at face value.

  2. Looks real to me. Here's why. by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 5, Interesting



    Theres one important clue here that points to this email as being legitimate. The lack of British euphamisms. The Register is a UK-based resource. If they wanted to doctor up a fake email in a conversational tone, it would have been written differently from the style in which it appears. Infact, when I was reading it, I kept expecting to see language differences, and didn't find any. Hell, to any self-respecting haxx0r, that bad-bad-doggy conclusion at the bottom of the email just begs to be disobeyed.

    Even more true is the snippet about DH Brown being total FUD-whores. It says so right on their damn webpage, you can pay for the results you want.. Give em $1M and they'll tell that the majority of people surveyed think the sky is green, Windows is better, and we all ride around on invisible pink unicorns.

    --
    Bowie J. Poag

  3. Now they know who the leaker is.... by tomreagan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    unless they are really stupid.

    It's a simple trick - they sent out slightly different copies of the email to everyone on the list. Then, when the public version gets published they can reference the published version against who got what.

    The changes can be cosmetic - slight changes in phrasing, additional punctuation, spacing, line breaks. Stuff like this would be pretty much unnoticeable without having a couple of different copies to compare against. Even then, it would likely be tough to notice the difference.

    Add in 3 separate requests to "not distribute" as a tempting goad to the leaker, and the odds are that MS has solved their problem with that person.

    Unless The Register sliced up the email themselves....

  4. Re:Why it's NOT a Hoax: Warning vs. catching the l by Foochar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unless he has the message "Canary Traped" This is a fairly well known method of determining where documents are being leaked. Your format the message slightly differently in each case, not enough to change the meaning or even enough that a casual reader will catch it, but enough that each document is unique. You might use a : instead of a ; or leave out a comma or period here or there. By comparing the leaked document to your originals you can figure out who the document was sent to, and therefore who leaked the document.

    --
    "You can't fight in here! This is the war room" --Dr. Stra
  5. I can write a better fake than that by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "While Linux is going nowhere on the desktop, it remains a threat in the server space. The use of Linux, especially with Apache Web Server, slows down the deployment of our next generation of web services, such as .NET, Passport, and Hailstorm. This in turn interferes with transitioning our customers to a subscription model and providing us with an ongoing revenue stream during periods of low growth. It's therefore important that efforts be made to displace non-Microsoft web servers.

    We're embarking on several initiatives in 2002 to deal with this.

    • The "99.999%" reliability program will be offered competitively to IT shops which use only Microsoft software.
    • Presentations to Fortune 1000 clients will emphasize the migration path planned for Windows XP and its successors, which will move consumers away from a generic Web environment to one that requires .NET-enabled web sites.
    • We will be introducing a new mail protocol in 2002 which will replace the present "SMTP" protocol. This protocol will provide authentication of mail senders (but not encryption of content) and will protect mail servers from unauthorized use. The client for this mail protocol will be distributed as an update to Internet Explorer. Initially, users will see no change as a result of this action. But when ISPs transition to our replacement for Post Office Protocol, our mail clients will treat old-format unauthenticated mail as potentially hostile. In high-security environments, old-format mail will be down-converted from HTML to plain text, and attachements will be stripped. Our intellectual property will prevent the cloning of this mail protocol, giving us control of the worldwide e-mail system within three years.
    • We are working with PC manufacturers to develop firmware which enforces a secure boot process. This will prevent the loading of non-signed operating systems. While any company will potentially be able to obtain permission to sign an bootable file, we are working with the National Infrastructure Protection Center to insure that such authority is only available to U.S. companies able to qualify for Government security clearances.
    With these new initiatives, you should have no trouble convincing top IT management that conversion to an all-Microsoft environment is inevitable."