Microsoft Gets Help From NSA for Vista Security

An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post is reporting that Microsoft received help from the National Security Agency in protecting the Vista operating system from worms and viruses. The Agency aimed to help as many people as they could, and chose to assist Vista with good reason: the OS still has a 90 percent lock on the PC market, with some 600 million Vista users expected by 2010. From the article: 'The Redmond, Wash., software maker declined to be specific about the contributions the NSA made to secure the Windows operating system ... Microsoft said this is not the first time it has sought help from the NSA. For about four years, Microsoft has tapped the spy agency for security expertise in reviewing its operating systems, including the Windows XP consumer version and the Windows Server 2003 for corporate customers.'"

Comments

Let me guess..

[scsirob]

.. They contributed "WIRETAP.DLL" and "TERRORSCAN.EXE" which are required components to pass the new-and-improved Windows Genuine Advantage test, right?!?

Re:Let me guess..

[Anonymous Coward]

TERRORSCAN.EXE doesn't really conform to Microsoft naming conventions. You should probably be looking for terrscn.exe

90% market share?

[Bohnanza]

"The Agency aimed to help as many people as they could, and chose to assist Vista with good reason: the OS still has a 90 percent lock on the PC market"

Wow! And it's not even out yet!

Re:BWHAHA

[jrwr00]

here we go, i found what it really said

If Microsoft made toasters... Every time you bought a loaf of bread, you would have to buy a Microsoft toaster. You wouldn't have to take the toaster, but you'd still have to pay for it anyway. Its Toaster XP and its new Toaster Vista would take up so much counter space in your kitchen that you'd have to buy a larger kitchen, plus they would draw enough electricity to power a small city. Both models would claim to be the first toaster that let you control how light or dark you want your toast to be, and would secretly interrogate your other appliances to find out who made them. If the appliances were made by another company, the Microsoft toaster would send a signal through the electric wiring in your house to disable them. Everyone would hate Microsoft toasters, but would buy them anyway since most of the good bread only works with Microsoft toasters. Microsoft would claim that it doesn't have a monopoly on toasters, but stores that sold other toasters would have to pay a lot more for Microsoft's toasters.

If the NSA made toasters... Your toaster would have a secret trap door that only the NSA could access in case its agents needed to get at your toast for reasons of national security.

Re:wouldn't it be nice?

[DaveTuck]

Now lets see about increasing that H1B visa quota

What the hell have pencils got to do with it??!!

Wrong helper

[gmuslera]

They should ask for help to the Vatican, after all, is a miracle what they are looking for.