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Microsoft Signs Renewed Cybersecurity Agreement With NATO
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft and NATO have renewed a cybersecurity partnership. The agreement is part of Microsoft's Government Security Program (GSP) which allows worldwide federal bodies controlled access to Microsoft source code. PCWorld reports: "Since its inception, the GSP has grown to encompass a bunch of other types of information, especially over the past few years. With the new agreement, NATO will get controlled online access to source code for key Microsoft products including Windows and Office; information about Microsoft's cloud services, and intelligence about cybersecurity threats."
And that boys and girls is another example of why you should NEVER trust Microsoft or governments.
I would be interested to see (if not classified) what the Nato recommended settings for Windows are. I have just taken the "free Windows 10" upgrade and took the "detailed" rather than the "quick settings" options and was amazed at the number of different data collection options I had to turn off. I say "had to", the truth is it probably doesn't matter, I dual boot and use Windowsa two or three time a year to run things like the update for my satnav
The point is that we also have access to linux source code, so we're all on a level playing field.
Closed source code is only available to select groups, and is also in the hands of blackhats. Legitimate security researchers have no access to it.
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I would be interested to see (if not classified) what the Nato recommended settings for Windows are.
The US's NSA (with NIST - US National Institute of Standards and Technology) and Canada's CSE(C) (with the Treasury Board / Public Works) publish guidelines for civilian government security policies and recommendations on their public web sites. I believe other (counter-)intelligence agencies do the same as well.