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Why American Corporate Software Can No Longer Be Trusted
jrepin writes "There is a problem with proprietary, closed software, which makes Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the first Pirate Party, a bit uneasy: 'We get a serious democratic deficit when the citizens are not able to inspect if the computers running the country's administrations are actually doing what they claim to be doing, doing all that and something else invisibly on top, doing the wrong thing in the wrong way at the wrong time, or doing nothing at all. ... In the debate around the American Stop Online Piracy Act, American legislators have demonstrated a clear capability and willingness to interfere with the technical operations of American products, when doing so furthers American political interests regardless of the policy situation in the customer’s country."
with there software and does it to us software used over there.
It's Hate America Week on Slashdot, kinda like shark week only with more BO and pointless ranting.
Well if you deal out Microsoft, Apple And Google, you are left with not much but Linux as an alternative! I for one would love to see this happen as resources and money would have to be poured in to make Linux distributions and applications that were world class!
And it was ever trustful, in the first place?
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
"How was the missing money, well, missing?
Gov. Daniels held a press conference to say, in effect, oops, the state lost track of $300 million, but don’t worry, because we’ve found it now. Those who accept this explanation at face value are probably the same folks who eagerly await the Easter bunny each year."
http://indianaeconomicdigest.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=92&ArticleID=62992
Since everyone overseas is already worried about keeping their data in the United States because it can be interfered with or seized by the government at the whim of a panicking Congressman, or leaving money in the country because of our constantly fluctuating tax laws^H^H^H^H^H loopholes, and left extremely wary of even doing business in the country (we're rapidly becoming small potatoes in an international context, globalism strikes back) -- this is just a natural extension. The US already bans imports of electronic goods from China for being used in government or defense applications, which is hilarious because our manufacturing base is gone.
Is that you, Richard Stallman? Are you in disguise?
What Falkvinge is identifying as a problem (the people can no longer tell what the government is doing) is likely an on-purpose feature, not an unintended consequence.
Recent SOPA decisions highlight the lack of technical knowlege in the legislative body of congress, yes. Also, they show how powerful lobbying efforts can negatively impact the legislative process.
However, no evidence is offered in TFA that supports the major assumption that "American Corporate Software can no longer be trusted for anything".
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
We can trust that it isn't sending stuff back home without telling us - we can discover that because software not by that vendor is on the router.
What else matters, really? If it's phoning home, we can detect it.
If you're worried about data logging locally, you can always use truecrypt or similar to protect that from falling in anyone else's hands.
I assume that you are talking about conventional software you buy and install on your desktop/laptop/tablet/phone. But what about cloud-based services (Salesforce, Google, iTunes, etc.)? They are exposing an interface and set of functions but the rest of it is not transparent. This class of software is probably where we should focus anti-SOPA efforts...
Supreme Granter of Doctor of Obviology Letters ("A FIRM Command of the Obvious")
Not even commenting on the article's content, is it really better to trust a pirate?
One of the major arguments for SOPA have been the trillions of dollars of theoretical losses of sales by the Media companies. As has been pointed out repeatedly ad nauseum, these losses are only theoretical.
But has someone on the senate actually done some estimation of possible loss of revenue, if the internet actually becomes splintered and USA loses its control? Or of even more foreign governments just turning to open source solutions, instead of to, say Microsoft? China, for example, is a big competitor already for the control of internet. They control a sizable part of it already. Let us say that they actually get it in their head to actually set up an alternate mechanism and act as the controlling authority? Even USA doesn't really dares to stand up to them... so all in all, we are talking of China ultimately controlling the distribution of said media/softwares, and who knows what terms they will set for the USA based companies?
I will admit that chances of above happening are remote at the moment. But what are these media folks, and their employees in the senate, smoking? Why even take the chance?
very sicka and its
If you use Android, you should check out the Guardian Project.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Confuscious say, "man who leap off cliff, jump to conclusion."
Be that as it may, it remains true that when someone clearly has ulterior motives, and offers you a tool without allowing you to see how it works, you have good reason to be distrustful.
We need a law that makes this two things 1) Every commercial software must have the source code available for inspection/viewing under whatever license the author wants. 2) The discontinued software must be released under public domain or under an open source software. ...so we can have a Office 97 and Windows 98 open source spin off ;P
In 2011, for being as security-vulnerable as other OS, ala these very current examples:
---
KERNEL.ORG COMPROMISED:
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/31/2321232/Kernelorg-Compromised
---
Linux.com pwned in fresh round of cyber break-ins:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/12/more_linux_sites_down/
---
Mysql.com Hacked, Made To Serve Malware:
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/26/2218238/mysqlcom-hacked-made-to-serve-malware
---
Linux's showing in CA's breached recently too? Ok:
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=StartCom.com
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=GlobalSign.com
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=Comodo.com
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=DigiCert.com
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.gemnet.nl
The list of CA Servers BREACHED that RUN LINUX (StartCom, GlobalSign, DigiCert, Comodo, GemNet)... per these articles verifying that:
http://itproafrica.com/technology/security/cas-hacked/
&
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/site-dutch-ca-gemnet-offline-after-web-server-attack-120811
---
NOW - ESPECIALLY TOSS ON ANDROID (yes, a Linux since it uses a Linux kernel) in also, since it's being "shredded" on the mobile phone security-front rampantly for years now?
You get the picture...
* TOP THAT ALL OFF W/ DUQU ROOTKIT/BOTNET BEING SERVED FROM LINUX SERVERS, PER THIS ARTICLE (very recent):
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/11/30/1610228/duqu-attackers-managed-to-wipe-cc-servers
APK
P.S.=> NewsFlash/New NEWS: Linux Security Blunders DOMINATE in 2011, despite all /. "FUD" for years saying "Linux = SECURE" (what a crock of shit that's turning out to be, especially on ANDROID)
... apk
Security-critical environments are one of the few places where open source should be a must.
No it was not, but that's not the point. Congress can order technology to restrict freedoms outside America. That was only theoretically the case before SOPA and similar bills. Now, there is no reason to assume that the American government is not interfering with any technology you can't inspect yourself.
Or to remove the double negatives: Now there is reason to assume the American government is interfering with any technology you can't inspect yourself.
We all know that SOPA is all about the money (I'll ignore the "everything is" argument, for now). Money the *IAAs feel they are losing, money the politicians have accepted in campaign contributions... Even the advertisements trying to drum up support for SOPA are about all the jobs (money) that will be lost if this doesn't become law...
Every argument I've heard has been about ideals and technology... We all know how politicians and corporations feel about ideals. Freedom of speech, Impossible to implement, Would break the very foundation of the web, etc... All meaningless to these people without a dollar sign attached to them.
This is the first argument I have heard that directly turns the tables. "Pass SOPA, and we will no longer trust any software produced by a US company." This would affect many more than just MS, Apple, and Google... How many PCs will Dell, (or HP, or Acer, or...) sell outside of the US if they are not allowed to sell them with (or without) Windows? If Dell et. al. are forced into producing computers with Windows installed for the US market, and %NotWindows% for the rest of the world, how long before they decide it isn't worth the effort, and just pick their favorite %NotWindows% for the entire line? How many jobs will be lost if no one in Europe is allowed to use Photoshop, MS Office, iTunes, AutoCAD,... The list goes on and on.
Do I think this is likely to happen? Not really.. But it makes for a good advertising campaign against SOPA.
In what way does SOPA order American-run corporations to sabotage their customers to further American policy? It sounds to me like he's arguing that the US government is forcing Microsoft and Google to harm their customers - perhaps through destroying foreign documents or secretly sending state-secrets to the United States government. Is this some part of SOPA that I'm not aware of?
Or this:
In what way does SOPA interfere with the technical operations of American products?
These quotes reflect pretty much the tone of the entire article, and I can't figure out what he's talking about. Earlier he talks about how everyone runs software from Microsoft or Apple. In what way does "taking websites off the internet" interfere with the "technical operations of American products [such as the construction of software by Microsoft and Apple]"?
Quite frankly, when I read the article, I'm completely confused by what he's alleging is going on. It's all very vague and conspiratorial. I can't figure out if Falkvinge wrote the article half asleep, whether he's going off the deep end and falling prey to strange conspiracy theories, or if there's some aspect of SOPA that nobody's talked about (which seems unlikely, given the amount of press I've seen about SOPA).
Those who will be affected most by SOPA are those who rely on American billing, search and advertising services.
It doesn't matter if you are running Linux, if you are hosting content that is flagged for violating copyright law, then you risks losing your advertising revenue.
The solution to the problem is to use services in other countries than the US. Whether you are running Linux or Windows is irrelevant.
I find this sort of thing rather amusing. You didn't trust closed source software...
So you download ten million or so lines of source code from some anonymous server, written by thousands of people you've never met and will never know. You then build it using even more software and libraries and tools running under yet another OS, and you then install it on hardware with its own BIOS and roms and controllers.
Hundreds of millions of lines of code you've never seen, and never will see...
And yet the end product of THAT result is somehow more trustworthy.
Right.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
"Why American Corporate Software Can No Longer Be Trusted"
This should read:
"Why Corporatations Cannot Be Trusted"
And I'm not sure TFA answers that very well.
Today's global economic situation is not much different than that of 1932. After years if not decades of reckless investment, currency and market manipulation, leveraged investment, and rapacious profit-making, US corporations and banks conspired in a way that ultimately led to a economic meltdown.
In 1929 they didn't need computers and software to do this. They needed a willing and complicit Legislature, courts, and government agencies. The results then are well known, as they are today.
We started back down this path in 1999 with the repeal of the Glass-Steagell Act. Couple that with the continuous pressure to expand home ownership, a Federal Reserve inappropriately tasked with controlling inflation and economic growth, and lack of oversight into multiple industries (Accounting firms audting a corporation while their banking divisions floated the IPO, for instance) and you had the makings of a perfect storm. It came.
Corporations, by design, cannot be 'trusted' to act in the 'public interest'. They need to be at least minimally regulated, if for no other reason than to prevent the most egregious abuses.
What this has to do with software is beyond me. It's more than that, a lot more.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
On one hand Slashdotters are yelling about how untrustable corporate software is, an on the other had they are yelling about how much they want the ability to hook up their personal laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. to the corporate networks when they go to work. WTF!? Come on guys, give your fucking heads a collective shake. What's it to be then, the corporate software is safe enough to expose your personal devices or it's ... what?
This is why I never could fucking understand this "I want to use my own laptop or smartphone at work" bullshit. I have never wanted to or trusted a corporate infrastructure enough to have full access to their systems; and conversely allow them to have access to my personal devices. If they want to have accounting and software tracking software look at the various nodes (and unless we're talking seriously small start up companies, they all do this), then I want them to supply me with a laptop, PC, tablet, smartphone, or whatever else is needed.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Person who founded a party supporting the pirating of software doesn't like the corporate software business model. Film at 11!
Seriously, why does anyone give a fuck what this person thinks, especially when his stance pretty fucking well known? You call this shit news?
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I'm totally shocked that the "founder of the first Pirate Party" hates corporate software. Shocked, I tell you. Maybe Slashdot could also get Steve Ballmer to write some anti-Linux essays.
This guy's very existence is a conflation of free-as-in-speech and free-as-in-beer, a difference that used to be important enough around here that posters would go out of their way to point it out. But today, we're in such an absurd situation that we're seeing essays from the Pirate Party on the front page. How can people be expected to take a group with such a name seriously?
"In the debate around the American Stop Online Piracy Act, American legislators have demonstrated a clear capability and willingness to interfere with the technical operations of American products, when doing so furthers American political interests regardless of the policy situation in the customer’s country."
Not quite. Should read:
"In the debate around the American Stop Online Piracy Act, American legislators have demonstrated a clear capability and willingness to interfere with the technical operations of American products, when doing so furthers American CORPORATE interests regardless of the policy situation in the customer’s country."
There. Fixed that for you.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
We can't trust any American corporations? Not even FSF?
Ah, the title doesn't match the article.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
NIGGER c0mmunity gains market share FreeBSD went out
I understand what this guy is saying, but how many developers (or people for that matter) are really taking a look at all the `open-source` operating system and application development software that's being used today? Just because software is closed or proprietary doesn't mean that it's automatically untrustworthy, just like `open-source` software is not necessarily automatically trustworthy. Introspection is required in either case to be absolutely certain, and most people don't have the time or ability to be certain in either case.
See subject-line - truth don't get rated well here, & facts are truths.
APK
P.S.=> So much for all the years of "FUD'" on /. about "Linux = secure, Windows != secure" b.s., after the above" No more hiding behind "security-by-obscurity" & with only a 1.19% marketshare on the PC desktop, imagine how much larger & longer that list'd be IF you have more marketshare (lol, & yes, the list for 2-11's larger than what I put up, but that'll do for now to prove my point, & so does the down mod of my post earlier, for proving my point on the 1st sentence I put in my comment after the subject)... apk
If you really want to get paranoid, you won't be using computers at all. You can't trust the software, even open source unless you've personally reviewed it all including the compiler. Even then you can't trust it unless you've reviewed the OS, BIOS and verified the design of all hardware in your system (including input devices down to the chip level.) Even then, you'll need monitor every byte of traffic on your network link (since even open software has vulnerabilities you likely didn't find in your review.) Still safe? No, because there could be listening and/or other devices anywhere, even inside the concrete blocks that make up your house. (e.g. a filter outside the street that modifies your network traffic.) Heck, even if you are Microsoft you can't trust your OWN software because there are too many cooks in the kitchen, as it were. None of whom were fully vetted.
Basically, guaranteed trust is a myth. You have to trust some one and some things or you are basically useless to society and will die of starvation (trust your food and water?) This article is either the start of a scare tactic against US companies and/or a poor attempt at bringing some rational thought to congress. Even if the US isn't doing crazy things behind the scenes, I'm sure China and most other large countries are.
I don't know, but it works for me.
can't think of a better quicker way to end American control and power on the world then the way they are going.....
My ubuntu 11.10 is fully up to date, plus both Firefox and Java up to date and Pogo works fine! I do hope pogo is worth living with know security holes in your system!
I would rather have an eternity of software freedom at hand. The Linux kernel is obviously robust, portable, capable, scalable, and proven. But in some distributions Linux is not entirely free because Linus Torvalds' fork contains non-free binary-only software (see the linux-libre project for a fully free Linux kernel). Also I'd hope for software freedom and not a particular approach (this OS, that kernel, etc.) because there are other free software programs that shouldn't be forgotten just because they're not a part of a complete GNU/Linux system.
Somewhat similarly regarding the headline for this article on /.: I don't think the true hinge of this issue is nationality or incorporation. These aspects are the true hinge of trouble in other issues (wars and suppressing democracy, to name a couple issues more significant than free software), but here I think that software freedom needs to be the focus worldwide. As time goes on I think more people will realize that software freedom can have life and death implications for ordinary people, particularly where people wear medical devices inside their body without any control over that device's function or any ability to inspect what that device does.
Digital Citizen
TFA specifically is about why American corporate software can't be trusted - because of SOPA.
As a result (of SOPA), American corporate code cannot be trusted from this day onwards...Therefore, the shift (away from Microsoft and Apple), needs to start as soon as possible.
He then goes on to say don't shift to Android because that's also American-made. Again, it's referring explicitly to the rules imposed by SOPA.
Well, that's one of the nice things about Linux in general. Security through obscurity! How many times have we been told, right here on slashdot, that no one even wants to hack into a Linux machine?
And, those known security holes on on HER machine, not mine. uname tells me that I'm not on Ubuntu at all: Linux sabayon 3.1.0-sabayon Since her machine has nothing of commercial or financial interest on it, I'm not about to fight with her about updating! At most, a hacker would get some personal details, which she would probably just laugh at - as she twisted the knife in his gut.
(Have I ever mentioned on slashdot that my wife's female relatives all seem a murderous bunch? Lots of "late husbands" died under strange circumstances after pissing their wives off!)
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Yes, I suggest you go to India, Russia, or China for your software. They are far more trustworthy, moron.
an ill wind that blows no good
You forgot NetBSD, you insensitive clod
Makes you think of open source and how few abuses it has been applied to. Is it immune to abuse? Probably not but it seems that it's pretty hard to hide abuses in and generally does things that are good in the short term and great in the long term!
Is it underfunded? Of course, it challenges the power elite who are terrified of an efficient transparent economy more than any act of war or violence.
Is is tampered with? Surely. But on the whole it just keeps getting better and better!
and I thought he was nutty, but possibly right. As time goes on, more and more I am convinced he is right. My notes from his presentation - Richard Stallman at the Yorktown High School Libre Users Group
USA is still number 1 destination for FDI
Casteism
Always makes me laugh, considering you should never trust them! ^^
These losses are purely hypothetical. If they were theoretical, then at least some real pear reviewed study should support the numbers.
I didn't mean removing but combining with...
with only a 1.19% marketshare on the PC desktop, imagine how much larger & longer that list'd be IF you have more marketshare
remind to all of us to what kind of computing devices your list of so-called breaches happened ?
APK: hum, hum, *COUGH* servers *COUGH*
and now remind to all of us to what is the marketshare of linux servers ?
APK: beep ! process error: buffer overflow
In order to judge if a person does the right thing you don't need to inspect his brain. You interact with him. Same goes for software. I am for FOSS in administration, but these arguments sound a bit silly.
"and now remind to all of us to what is the marketshare of linux servers ?"" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @06:18AM (#38513454)
Linux's only on servers because no cost/free (not better) & I posted the majority (desktops, where the less saavy users are) & when COMBINED with servers usage figures also - what's STILL used more?
* Windows - by far & no questions asked.
AND
On smartphones?
ANDROID's a Linux variant, & it's being shredded weekly w/ exploits of various kinds & yes, it's a Linux variant... period!
(This shows that Linux is just as exploitable, if not moreso, than Windows has been, despite the b.s. of "Linux is secure" FUD spread around for years here on /. ... )
APK
P.S.=>
"remind to all of us to what kind of computing devices your list of so-called breaches happened ?" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @06:18AM (#38513454)
Linux got breached the most on servers in the list I posted also, since you asked - where it gets used the most of WHERE & WHAT LITTLE it gets used (little on desktops where far less saavy & more vulnerable users are - Linux people ought to thank the Lord they can still hide by "security-by-obscurity" there @ least)... lol!
However?
The MAIN POINT's that those breaches did indeed, occur, despite YEARS of FUD from the *NIX penguins around here of "Linux = secure" b.s.!
... apk
"you are a BS FUD spreading troll but I will feed you a bit because you are pitiful" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @01:19PM (#38517302)
See subject-line, & consider less profanity in ur "FoaMiNg @ teh MouTh" replies, lol...
---
"Windows get used less than Linux on servers, routers and phones means it's not as good" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @01:19PM (#38517302)
Windows gets used more on PC's &/or Servers as I stated - per my subject-line once more? I merely state verifiable facts!
---
"as the saying goes "obvious troll is obvious". " - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @01:19PM (#38517302)
Yea, goes for YOU, perfectly - especially with your profanity-laden "RaGinG" replies quoted above, lol!
APK
P.S.=> LMAO - this is the BEST PART NOW THOUGH:
Hahahaha - Yet another "security-breach" for Linux in 2011, to close out my "recent security breaches on Linux bearing systems" data:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/28/1743201/data-exposed-in-stratfor-compromise-analyzed
& what's that domain running? That's right - you guessed it kids! Linux -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.stratfor.com
"Happy New Year", lmao, to that "fine Linux security" you heard for YEARS about here around /., hahaha, because it got shredded in 2011!...
... apk
"eat your shit troll!" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @01:19PM (#38517302)
Don't recommend your diet since you're taking your own advice here now (how's it taste, along with your words you have to eat, flavored with "the bitter taste of defeat", lol?):
---
Yet another Linux bearing server compromised in 2011:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/28/1743201/data-exposed-in-stratfor-compromise-analyzed
---
* "Read 'em & WEEP", Penguins...
(So much for the 'FUD' lies spread around here on /. for YEARS of "Linux = Secure", because 2011 showed us ANYTHING BUT THAT, especially ANDROID (a linux variant) on smartphones... let alone the Linux sourcecode repository breached & the 5 CA's that 'secure' SSL too (think ecommerce/online banking-shopping etc./et al))
APK
P.S.=> And, what's that domain running? That's right, you guessed it kids: Linux -> http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.stratfor.com
... apk"