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On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 02:09:03PM +0000, bad apple wrote: > A direct quote from the second link: > > "Thanks to Edward Snowden, it is now established that intelligence > agencies modify hardware (computers, routers, firewalls, etc) and > software (Microsoft Windows, probably all Apple operating systems, > probably one GNU-Linux distribution, etc)" Put like this, it smells like FUD. I don't remember seeing any Snowden leak that showed that intelligence agencies modify hardware or software during the process of manufacturing or writing respectively - so before it is being sold. What various leaks have revealed is that the NSA and others are able to hack into just about any device, using vulnerabilities in hardware and software. This is bad, but shouldn't be surprising. Firstly, because hardware and software tends to be vulnerable. Which means that if you have enough money and thus enough skills, you can exploit these vulnerabilities to break into the devices. And secondly because this is kind of what the NSA (or at least its offensive part) is set up to do: spy on the communication of (potential) enemies. Now some people (myself included) will argue that it's still bad, but it's likely that they would have gotten away with this if they hadn't been spying on just about anyone. As for the petition, I am not unsympathetic towards it.* But they make it sound as if intelligence agencies can break into some devices, but not into others and that we can thus protect ourselves better against them if only we are able to choose the software that runs on the devices we purchase. * actually, I think there's nothing wrong in principle with bundled sales. It's just that in the case of the PC market, one particular software package has obtained a more than healthy marketshare. And that's not good. Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq