U.S.-China Surveillance

The Washington Post today reports:

For the first time, the giant software maker is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as part of the Bush administration’s effort to combat terrorism. The agency said it has helped in the development of the security of Microsoft’s new operating system — the brains of a computer — to protect it from worms, Trojan horses and other insidious computer attackers.

Industry observers told Post reporters Alec Klein and Ellen Nakashima that the relationship would likely be viewed as evidence of the operating system’s tight security:

“I kind of call it a Good Housekeeping seal” of approval, said Michael Cherry, a former Windows program manager who now analyzes the product for Directions on Microsoft, a firm that tracks the software maker.

Cherry says the NSA’s involvement can help counter the perception that Windows is not entirely secure and help create a perception that Microsoft has solved the security problems that have plagued it in the past. “Microsoft also wants to make the case that [the new Windows] more secure than its earlier versions,” he said.

Microsoft has neglected to be specific about the role played by the NSA, but the announcement is likely to raise new concerns among privacy activists. In September of 1999, reports circulated of a possible NSA “back door”  in Windows 95, 98, NT4 and 2000, discovered by Canada-based cryptography expert Andrew Fernandes in debugging information erroneously left in a service pack for Windows NT. Although Microsoft denied the allegations at the time, security experts were skeptical.