Windows 7 News
Windows 7 spying on U.S. citizens?
Nov 20th
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft during the production of Windows 7 Opinions on this are divided. “This is a suspicious case. NSA likes to eavesdrop and track citizens’ – director warns Electronics Privacy Information Center. “This conspiracy theory is nonsense” – reassured the managers of one of AVG Technologies.
The latest report, the Director of the Information Department of the American National Security Agency (NSA) at a meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism and National Security indicates that the agency was directly involved in the production Windows 7:
“NSA experts collaborated with Microsoft and some units of the Department of Defense by providing them with their knowledge and operational skills in the field of security of operating systems. The team worked on fine tuning the security solutions in the private and public sectors” – Richard Schaeffer said during a meeting with politicians.
“All activities covered the whole production cycle of the system. Thus it was easier to understand each other their assumptions and to introduce them into the final version of Windows 7″ – added Schaeffer.
It is known that this is not the first time the NSA has worked with Microsoft during the works on Windows. In 2007, the agency confirmed that its experts were involved in testing Windows Vista – their task was then to check whether the system will be compatible with the software and whether the government is safe. Previously, the NSA advised how best to secure Windows XP and Windows 2000.
Conspiracy theory
Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronics Privacy Information Center (EPIC) says that the NSA’s involvement in the design of operating systems for the private sector is a deeper issue, which has its roots already in the early ’90s. Rotenberg is opposed to such cooperation:
“When the NSA offers its assistance in planning for the private sector, there is a suspicion that the experts will prepare a gap in the product (backdoor), which then will serve the agency to track and eavesdrop on users’ – Rotenberg said.
“Companies in the private sector, of course, avoiding comment on the matter. It is not surprising, because the U.S. government is one of their largest customers. Oppose the NSA would have led to a significant decrease in software sales – Rotenberg warned.
Rotenberg fears are related to the fact that the NSA has been repeatedly accused of tapping phone calls and intercepting electronic messages of citizens.
Experts: “This is bullshit!”
Andrew Storms, director of the nCircle Security, does not believe in this conspiracy theory. “Impossible that Microsoft has agreed to such an absurd solution. Disclosure of the affair would be unacceptable from a business point of view and led to colossal losses.” – Storms said.
Roger Thompson, one of the managers AVG Technologies, is a similar view. “I just can not imagine that the NSA and Microsoft have committed to something so irresponsible. The consequences of disclosure of the affair would have been unimaginable. – Said Thompson.” Indeed, it would further claim that the NSA and Microsoft work together to protect computer systems against attacks from other countries . As for the official conspiracy Microsoft partnership – the NSA, is once again emphasize – is nonsense. ”
Ballmer: Windows 7 selling like hotcakes
Nov 20th
Windows 7 isn’t just getting good reviews, it’s also selling well, CEO Steve Ballmer told shareholders Thursday.
Delivering opening remarks at Microsoft’s shareholder meeting, Ballmer said that Windows 7 was off to a “fantastic start.”
“We’ve already sold twice as many units as any OS in a comparable time frame,” Ballmer said. “Windows 7 is simply the best PC operating system that we or anyone else has ever built.”
By last week, Windows 7 accounted for 4 percent of Web-accessing devices, according to Net Applications; it took Vista more than seven months to reach that level.
Addressing the overall economy, Ballmer reiterated that things seem to have stabilized.
“The economy has, at least for now, leveled off,” he said.
The meeting is still going on and has just entered the question-and-answer session and I’ll update this post if anything interesting comes up. So far, though, it’s been mostly about local and legislative matters, rather than technological issues.
Read full @ Source
Windows 64 bit is safer
Nov 20th
Microsoft claims Windows users running 64-bit versions of the operating system are less likely to get infected by attack code. According to Microsoft’s security team said that 64-bit Windows has some of the lowest reported malware infection rates in the first half of 2009.
According to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center 64-bit malware is still exceedingly rare in the wild. Based on data gleened from Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRC) the 64-bit version of Windows XP was 48 per cent less likely to be infected than the 32-bit edition during the first half of 2009; PCs running Vista 64-bit, meanwhile, were 35 per cent less likely to be infected than Vista 32-bit.
The blog said that that Windows 7 64-bit is the dominant flavor of that new OS as he touted its security. The blog claims that 64-bit Windows was safer by design than the less-powerful 32-bit version, ticking off such measures as PatchGuard, which makes it more difficult for malware to tamper with the operating system’s kernel.