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Tech Firms Let Russia Probe Software Widely Used by US Government (reuters.com)
Major global technology providers SAP, Symantec, and McAfee have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded across the U.S. government, Reuters reported on Thursday. From the report: The practice potentially jeopardizes the security of computer networks in at least a dozen federal agencies, U.S. lawmakers and security experts said. It involves more companies and a broader swath of the government than previously reported. In order to sell in the Russian market, the tech companies let a Russian defense agency scour the inner workings, or source code, of some of their products. Russian authorities say the reviews are necessary to detect flaws that could be exploited by hackers. But those same products protect some of the most sensitive areas of the U.S government, including the Pentagon, NASA, the State Department, the FBI and the intelligence community, against hacking by sophisticated cyber adversaries like Russia.
... that I could be confident our elected officials were at least smart enough not to believe Russian officials also needed root access to all the production machines in order to complete a source code audit.
just wow
China demanded the source code for Microsoft stuff, in order to allow them to do business in the country. This isn't anything new. What needs done is the US to go to F/OSS, where everyone scrutinizes bugs, not the hallowed few who have source code access.
So if it's wrong/bad for foreign entities to view the source code of software used by the US government, does that mean that the US government should avoid any and all open source software because foreign entities can easily view its source code?
Tech firms let Russia probe software widely used by US government, following same processes US government, and all other governments, use.
This is a non-story. They try to make it sound like this is some nefarious method to undermine the US government, when the reality is that they're checking to make sure there aren't NSA backdoors.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Fuck off, Trump troll.
Are you a full on retard? The russians are very obviously running espionage campaigns against us.
This has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. If we want to secure our shit we should obviously not be giving hackers the source code for our security systems.
Only a hyper partisan fool would think this makes sense.
Stupidity is absolutely everywhere. Yes, let's just give away the keys to the castle. Maybe the US Government will start building its own systems instead of relying on shitty vendors like Oracle or SAP. Systems that have great need for secrecy should be custom developed in house.
Of course a defense department looking to use a piece of software is going to inspect it for security. Frankly it's more a sign of Russia's lack of security that they would use US software on their systems than anything else. Security through obscurity isn't security so opening the source is irrelevant to anything from a security perspective.
Lefties don't understand and appreciate just how much their relentless hyperbole hurts their own causes, especially when what they're claiming is obviously nonsensical. Lefties have pushed this 'Russia' narrative so much that normal people just roll their eyes and ignore it. It's the same with things like 'racism', 'Nazis', 'climate change', and 'rape', and 'gender'. The Lefties pushed these agendas/false-accusations so much that normal people no longer care. The real danger of this is that it forces Lefties to resort to pushing far more extreme agendas/false-accusations in order to try to get a rise out of normal people. Their hypocrisy of these Lefties will likely result in them doing some extraordinarily harmful things.
That's nothing, Linus Torvalds regularly publishes code that EVERY SINGLE RUSSIAN can access. It's TREASON!
The problem isn't with the code being available to Russia. The problem is a lack of secure development practices and code review. Minimizing bloat and focusing on doing shit well rather than adding needless functionality or new user interfaces.
I would love the world to take security seriously. We wouldn't have near the bloat and everything would fit on a floppy disk. We'd still be using chipsets from 1994, but improved for security.
The terminal would be standard operating procedure and taught in every school. Coding would be taught in every school. Only the elite would ever find a patch accepted however.
Your troll is weak and stale. You are welcome to try again.
What a naive little utopia you've imagine. Quaint.
> So if it's wrong/bad for foreign entities to view the source code of software used by the US government, does that mean that the US government should avoid any and all open source software because foreign entities can easily view its source code?
Quite the opposite.
It's a given that other governments -- especially the powerful ones -- will get to view (and review) the source of _closed_ products as a pre-requisite condition to prevent a software product from having its sales vetoed.
That way, even if you as a common customer cannot see the code, for such governments effectively all code is open source (Windows, iOS, Photoshop, you name it). It's thus foolish to seek security by obscurity. Hence, why not use open source & Free software and leverage the contributions of developers all over the world?
It's probably also safer.
Against you, stupid sand n1ggers? Good for them, and fuck you.
How about you get over Benghazi and her emails? You know the difference between those stories and Russia? The investigations were completed and found nothing.
If Russia is nothing, then let the investigations complete it and tell us so. Then you can bitch that we're not "over it".
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Every large-enough customer can get access to source-code of closed software. This is completely standard and there is nothing nefarious going on here. This only endangers anything US if the US messed up their own review.
Who writes these demented articles?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I've seen too many movies with this same story line not to take note. The one thing in my favor at this point is my advanced age. I don't want to have to see the end result. You are bringing about a true devolution of human society. Shame on all of you!
Every country with an intelligence agency is running espionage campaigns against every other country. That's what intelligence agencies do, and have done since the beginning of time.
Claiming the Russians got Trump elected is a cover for the clear corruption of the Clintons and the DNC. It's designed to keep you on the plantation, not convince Trump voters to vote Democrat.
Well, no wonder. From 3 years ago:
Russian researchers expose breakthrough in U.S. spying program
The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world’s computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.
That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.
Stuxnet, the hard drive firmware exploits, last year the upload of malware from a NSA developer, and others discoveries of state developed spyware have definitely made KL and other Russian based software companies targets to be hurt economically.
Make all security software open source, so everyone can look at it, and the many eyeballs cause problems to be fixed quicker.
Seriously, Hillary Clinton lost. Get over it already.
The only person still talking about Hillary Clinton is Donald Trump.
The Clinton Machine is still talking about her a lot. She's going to run again in 2020.
How do you like the global economy now?
Putin preferred Trump over Clinton. Putin put his machine to work to help get Trump elected. So far, that's fairly agreed upon. The question is if Trump knew or not.
You sound Ameridumb. Tell us about your Texas schoolbooks.
Every country with an intelligence agency is running espionage campaigns against every other country. That's what intelligence agencies do, and have done since the beginning of time.
Claiming the Russians got Trump elected is a cover for the clear corruption of the Clintons and the DNC. It's designed to keep you on the plantation, not convince Trump voters to vote Democrat.
The reason that all this Russian corruption (and a metric shit-ton of other government corruption/criminality) hardly ever results in anyone going to prison, Agencies/Departments/Bureaus/etc purged, is that *both sides are dirty as hell*. Both sides have taken money from and worked with Russians (and other foreign governments) for their own and their Party's/ideology's gain, and against the interests of the American people.
The DoJ, FBI, IRS, NSA, and likely more TLAs are corrupt and compromised. They have been reduced to political tools.
To those in power in both major Parties in the US, we are all cattle which they sell off to the highest bidders, nothing more. The "issues" are simply to keep people angry and distracted from realizing what those in power are actually doing to them, like a magician with sleight-of-hand....always watch the other hand, not the one they want you to watch.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
and all pregnancies that test false for autism will be terminated?
No, you know what, you're right. Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic.
We should care about Benghazi if Benghazi refers to the terrorist attack against the US Consulate in 2011. But that's not actually what you give a shit about.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
The Benghazi and mishandling of classified information investigations found plenty.
We found out that Hillary knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack and that Susan Rice went on the mainstream news programs the next day and lied to the American People about it being caused by some amateur video about Prophet Muhammad.
We found out that not only did Hillary retain classified information on unauthorized, insecure systems, but she gave copies on a thumb drive to attorneys that lacked the proper security clearances to hold the information and we also discovered copies of those emails on Huma Abedin's former husband's laptop. We discovered she had her servers wiped (no, not with a cloth) when she found out she was being investigated. We also found out that despite receiving training on how to handle classified materials she was unable to identify classification marking on documents. Her explanations did not pass the sniff test.
Why do you believe nothing was found? Because she wasn't charged with a crime?
We'll see. The Clinton Foundation is under investigation and felons are ineligible for public office.
Reading this, I was struck by something.
Why does this story sound alarming? Maybe because the Russians could plant vulnerabilities in the code? Maybe because they could find vulnerabilities and exploit them against us?
What hit me is that every government has a good reason, an honest and honorable reason to inspect the code of systems it uses. They want it to be safe and reliable. However that also extends temptation to those governments, either to plant vulnerabilities or to discover and not report those vulns. Those are bad reasons, corrupt reasons.
The next thing that occurred to me is that all these governments are at least suspected of doing the bad things. The Russians, the Americans, the Chinese, ... maybe the Indians...
And no, I don't think that FOSS is the answer to this. FOSS is a weak response. Our governments are deeply flawed and seem to be, at best neglectful of the best interests of their citizens. At worst they are predatory.
You could say this has always been true, and that certainly was true of the worst governments. What is appalling is that even the best governments now have this stain on their hands.
Or is it more true that only America has fallen in this fashion?
And as usual with right wing partisan political witch hunts based on lies, they will find nothing, and then the likes of you will be endlessly repeating the lie, and making up another stupid conspiracy theory to justify your dishonesty.
Those naughty Russians always up to no good, now they want to know if there are exploits in software which they propose to deploy into their Government agencies, this is really bad its just made the NSA's job a lot harder, well it would be harder if they were out ward facing and not inward facing.
Found plenty, bullshit 3 investgations found bugger all. More alt right alt facts from the RWNJs
She's still running around peddling her book about being a loser and how Democracy is dying. She was just in Canada.
The problem isn't that foreign entities can review the source code. The problem is that nobody else gets to, so the foreign entities have the capacity to find bugs and simply not report them. You know, the kind of thing the NSA absolutely never ever would do because the US is so much better than anyone else..
Unlikely != Impossible .
The highly rated commenters all think it's impossible that this access benefits the Russians in nefarious ways. It's not impossible. Basically the point of the article is that greedy companies let Mother Russia send her experts in to examine the code of various programs that the US government also uses so they could get sales in Russia. There are lots of smart Russians. I wouldn't say there is no chance that the Russians could find an exploit in such a code review and just carry it back in their memories and at home hammer on the program until they get it working. Of course the US government could be doing the same thing as a result of their own code review.
I think not. Am I comfortable about, I think not.
I just have to say it: you Americans are nuts.
Since when have Russian elections been elections? Putin arrests opponents, bans them, substitutes fake proxy opponents, and even then the votes taleys are fake as fuck. The last real vote they had resulted in Putin losing in the evening, a shutdown on the count due to 'technical difficulties' then when the vote came back, Putin wins..... after that the skew factor is very much larger to ensure there is no repeat.
WHY SHOULD WE SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING?? Putin is actively attacking our elections, so why should we roll over and take it? Regime change is needed in Russia. Putin has to go, he's the reason Russia is poor, and isolated, he's the threat to the west. Him.
Partisan people like you always trying to defend Russian attacks mixed with Russian trolls from the troll farm, and you cannot tell which of you is a partisan and which is a troll because you're the same. You look at Fox News, they blow smoke cover for Russian attacks on elections, and then Hannity does a piece with Coulter on why American women shouldn't be allowed to vote... f*king traitors. Wrap themselves in the stars and stripes and then put party over country. Russia can vote in US elections, but American women can't.
I doubt slashdot has a mass appeal, so likely having little effect on anything happening in real life.
Not sure we want to see all this crappy source code.
Many eyeballs would bleed.
aaaaaaa
Nice set of right wing snowflake talking points, comrade. Now why don't you tell us about the 12 MILLION emails Cheney erased.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Diplomats, you say? Russia seems to be having extraordinarily bad luck with its diplomats.
Russian diplomats keep dying unexpectedly
Interestingly, among this toll was Vitaly Churkin, Russian ambassador to the UN, in New York, where Donald Trump lives.
Reuters is a British corportation and its US branch exists and operates only as a subsidiary. Its stock trades in the US as a depository share (similar to Alibaba -- a Chinese company). Despite a common language, Britain is NOT part of the US. It has, at times, priorities which are opposed to those of the US (as was clearly evidenced by Britain's Jerusalem embaassy vote in the UN).
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.
Yeah. Ok. That's why he gave hundreds of mllions of dollars of dollars to Clintons in the open. So that he could spend $100k on ads for the Trump campaign. Fuck off, retard.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Trump is a Republican. So on the internets that means he has the burden of proving his innoncence, don't you know that yet? Hundreds of millions of dollars given to Clintons are not an indication of Russian influence. Because it's not proven. But an accusation by 17.. ummm 4.. oh, who cares.. ALL intelligence agencies against Trump has to be disproven before it's false. Get with the program or you are a Kremlin spy, too. Go back to performing some gross sexual act of poster's choice.... Ivan!
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.
No. Just, no. Not going to happen. Next question.
You know the difference between those stories and Russia?
Yes. Those stories are true. And the Russian collusion story is a fabrication made up to divert attention from them.
The investigations were completed and found nothing.
No, they found her guilt. And then the Obama-led administration let her off the hook because she knows where the proverbial bodies are buried.
If Russia is nothing, then let the investigations complete it and tell us so.
It's been completed a long time ago. It's not even looking at the collusion anymore. It's looking at the abstraction of justice which legal scholars (as opposed to news reporters) don't think is possible in this case. Look in the mirror. You'll see someone defending a criminal enterprise that the Democratic party has become. Live with it.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Nice set of right wing snowflake talking points, comrade.
The comrade is in your mirror. You are carrying water for the neo-communist criminal cartel that is the Democratic party.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Funny that she was allowed to leave the jurisdiction. She is still being investigated. That makes her a potential fugitive on the run.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Almost everything in your comment is a big fat lie. The first thing you supposedly quoted from my comment:
Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.
I didn't say that. Why lie about something so trivial? Pathetic.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
How about you get over Benghazi and her emails?
And, of course, you can't edit your posts after the fact. This is just the format which drives Slashdot. It's what makes it, at times, uniquely psychotic in its own special way.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Oh, and just because I copied a quote from a previous comment to which I was replying, doesn't change the fact that you are in the tank for the Criminal Democratic party. Let me tell you something every Libertarian who switched their vote from Johnson to Trump thinks: I kept the criminal Clinton out of office and I sleep fine.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
How about you get over Benghazi and her emails? You know the difference between those stories and Russia? The investigations were completed and found nothing.
Go read the results of the FBI investigation into Vince Foster's death and tell me they found nothing.