“Microsoft is responding to a report that the National Security Agency has a secret program that can hijack Microsoft Windows' crash reporting system to spy on NSA targets.
The latest revelations were first reported Sunday in the German magazine Der Spiegel, which lifted the lid on a division of the NSA known as Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, described as an elite team of hackers specializing in stealing data from the toughest of targets.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-responds-to-report-nsa-snooped-in-windows/
Microsoft calms down Australian Parliament
“The Australian Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) has said that Microsoft has informed the department that parliamentarians should not worry about their data being accessed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), stating that there is no backdoor installed on Microsoft software suites used in the Australian parliament."
http://www.zdnet.com/au/no-nsa-backdoor-into-australian-parliament-microsoft-7000025659/
Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft
"Internet companies - including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft - were reported last week to have granted the National Security Agency (NSA) "direct access" to their servers under a data collection programme called Prism.
The firms denied the accusations, saying they gave no such access but did comply with lawful requests.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22916329
“The National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have been developing capabilities to take advantage of "leaky" smartphone apps, such as the wildly popular Angry Birds game, that transmit users' private information across the internet, according to top secret documents.
The data pouring onto communication networks from the new generation of iPhone and Android apps ranges from phone model and screen size to personal details such as age, gender and location.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/nsa-gchq-smartphone-app-angry-birds-personal-data
“One type of machine installed is a Narus Semantic Traffic Analyzer, a powerful tool for deep packet inspection. Narus has continually refined their capabilities and—as of the mid-2000s—each Narus machine was capable of analyzing 10 gigabits of IP packets, and 2.5 gigabits of web traffic or email, per second. It is likely even more powerful today.”
https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/how-it-works
Microsoft is running “Dreamspark” and “Microsoft student partner” program in many countries.
Why Microsoft is giving its old and new softwares for free to students, is it only to get competitive advantage over its rivals or does it has any other initiative?
Chances are there that NSA will gather information by hiding spywares and malwares in Microsoft products.
Nothing final can be said about this program at the moment
so great stuff to know
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