The NSA doesn't need a backdoor to Vista

The Gestapo Loves You

Technically prior to the so called "patriot act" (patriotard act) is has been it is illegal for the US government to spy on its citizens. The way it works is that the NSA builds the back door and the British equivalent (GCHQ) of the NSA does the actual spying. The reverse is true for the British, the NSA collects information on British people and the forwards it to the GCHQ. See, all nice and legal like.

As far as the Washington post article... All it really tells you is that the American people aren't going to do a darn thing about it. Take American Idol off the air and you'd unleash a crap storm. Build NSA back doors into their PC's and they hardly rattle their chains.

I don't trust neither

I don't trust neither Microsoft nor the NSA not to build in backdoors..

One should also note that it was the NSA who developed SELinux. An implementation for a new security model that toughens computers against attackers, including the NSA of course.

Yes, since the code's being

Yes, since the code's being actively scrutinized by many grey and black hats, if it's there, there will be attempts to open it 'real soon now', and we'll all know about it shortly thereafter.

Keeping track of our

Keeping track of our citizens is fairly easy. We have the largest storage and fastest computers on the globe. All just to track and spy on each and every citizen in the US. We record your movement with your 911 GPS chip in your phone and GPS systems and trackers in your vehicles. We can even listen on any phone, even if it is hung up. On-Star is a great tracking and listening tool. Everywhere you use a credit card, ATM card or show an ID card we know it. We have installed cameras on every traffic light and can tap all cameras to keep an eye on you. With incremental back up we copy your drive every time to come anywhere near the internet. DRM is just a FBS-NSA-SS tool to cover our tracks and hide the real reason your computer slows down. With RFID chips soon mandated into food and clothing we will track your every move day and night. VISTA will be a new key to streamline our info gathering. With all this info we can blackmail and coerce you into doing whatever we want. Oh yea, we’ll look for “terrorists” too. Welcome comrade to the brave new world.

600 million computers is a

600 million computers is a lot, but not too large for a consolidated database. A 'backdoor' doesn't have to look like subseven to be useful for data correlation. usernames, passwords, keywords, and keystrokes are more than enough information to be extremely useful. And, I'm all for the NSA doing that these days.

The bigger question is much more whether or not it would be implemented properly, or even if it is possible to do so, without this tool being exploited by other foreign states or determined hackers, or the next mega-worm to stop planet earth from rotating. I trust NSA's intentions. I don't trust that they can build a backdoor safely, however. It's an oxymoron to begin with.

And your point is? As a

And your point is? As a private citizen, I don't want any backdoors. Got a problem? Reformat. As a government employee? I don't want a backdoor. Reformat.

But, back to my original point. I don't think Microsoft and the NSA are in bed together. It just doesn't make sense.

I don’t believe what I

I don’t believe what I have just read from C.J.Kelly.
If she is a security officer, then her current employer should reevaluate her worthiness.
The point of having a back door in windows or any other software is to gain access when needed. After a target Person/Computer has been identified, direct access to the OS will provide first hand information, without the hassle of doing much analysis.

The death of idealism.

The death of idealism.

It seems historically naive

It seems historically naive to say, "The government has better things to do than spy on us." For example, the Soviet KGB routinely monitored its ordinary citizens without regard to probable cause. They read virtually all international mail, whoever the correspondents. Did that branch of the KGB have better things to do? Clearly not: on the contrary, that kind of surveillance was exactly what they considered the best thing they could do, and so they were doing it. Oleg Kalugin writes that this branch of the KGB had an enormous staff, rooms full of mostly young women, who opened the letters, skimmed them for suspicious language, and made notes on who should be watched. It was a grand operation, and it often snagged valuable information.

Do we then say that "our" NSA would never do such a thing? A few years ago I would have said yes: there was and is a law forbidding it. But since the warrantless wiretapping story has come to light, we may no longer rationally claim that the NSA eschews spying on US citizens. They have shattered that trust, and it is irrational and naive to hold on to the shreds of that broken promise.

With more and more

With more and more governments joining the free(open)software wave, our world is becoming really evil, isn't it ? ;-D