Russia has MS sourcecode

[BomberAF]

I don't know if anyone here remembers the Commodore 64 computer. But back in the day there were whole clubs (mostly kids) dedicated to copying and sharing Copyrighted software.

I was never part of any 'club' but the C-64 certainly did introduce me to 'freeware'...



****

Все коде являются принадлежат нам.

Wasn't as bad as the Commodore Amiga!

 

[BomberAF]

Don't know why everybody is so shocked, how hard can it be for a very tech savvy organisation with a huge resource to actually reverse engineer MS products to get the source code? Hackers and virus writers do it all the time and that is why Linux users will tell you that MS products are so full of malware.

Do you also think as well that the PC's that are used at NASA, The pentagon MI5 etc. will use a normal MS OS? I don't think they would, I think they will use their own bespoke OS's.

EDIT: And to also add to this, hasn't the EU as well as USA courts ordered MS to release it's source code to it's competators so they can write software for their own use?

No, not "normal," but probably highly customized version of Windows. Not only that but between their sophisticated networking and they encrypt just about everything, they stay fairly secure. Most if their breaches are from people losing stuff that is decrypted.

Occasionally someone will bring in viruses and unintended consequences.

For example, the fellow that brought the USB disk that was infected. They lifted the ban this year:

DailyTech - Pentagon Lifts Ban on Thumb Drives, Adds a Few Caveats

In the UK we have had all kinds of MP's and senior civil servants losing laptops and un encrypted USB keys on trains, taxis, and bench's. The data was everything from the home address of every single prison inmate in the UK to Royal Navy new Recruit details to NHS details and Driving Licence details.

But back to the point, how difficult can it be for an organistion like the Russian government to reverse engineer MS products to get source code?

And for the record don't ALL governments has trojans and the like that are completely undectable by Firewalls, and as such special measures need to be taken? I seem to remember this issue comming up when China was accused of espionage about 6 years ago when they apparently had been infecting western government PC's with these maliciouse programs?

 

[Win7User512]

But back to the point, how difficult can it be for an organistion like the Russian government to reverse engineer MS products to get source code?

Can't say for sure, outside of a disassembler or decompiler. They have done pretty well thus far. Most of any source that gets out they either share parts with other companies/gov'ts, or leaks.

I can't point to an instance where someone reverse-engineered Windows source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Reverse_engineering_of_software

 

[BomberAF]

But back to the point, how difficult can it be for an organistion like the Russian government to reverse engineer MS products to get source code?

Can't say for sure, outside of a disassembler or decompiler. They have done pretty well thus far. Most of any source that gets out they either share parts with other companies/gov'ts, or leaks.

I can't point to an instance where someone reverse-engineered Windows source.

Reverse engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But it would not be unreasonable to presume that the Russians already have their own un official self obtained source code, and all the source code that MS has given them has done has just crossed the T's so to speak.

 

[Win7User512]

But back to the point, how difficult can it be for an organistion like the Russian government to reverse engineer MS products to get source code?

Can't say for sure, outside of a disassembler or decompiler. They have done pretty well thus far. Most of any source that gets out they either share parts with other companies/gov'ts, or leaks.

I can't point to an instance where someone reverse-engineered Windows source.

Reverse engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But it would not be unreasonable to presume that the Russians already have their own un official self obtained source code, and all the source code that MS has given them has done has just crossed the T's so to speak.

It's possible. I suppose it wouldn't be a bad strategy if they were looking to launch a massive attack on the US, given that Windows is a 90%+ marketshare product.

Congress is in the process of giving Obama the internet kill switch, so maybe they know something we don't.

 

[BomberAF]

Can't say for sure, outside of a disassembler or decompiler. They have done pretty well thus far. Most of any source that gets out they either share parts with other companies/gov'ts, or leaks.

I can't point to an instance where someone reverse-engineered Windows source.

Reverse engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But it would not be unreasonable to presume that the Russians already have their own un official self obtained source code, and all the source code that MS has given them has done has just crossed the T's so to speak.

It's possible. I suppose it wouldn't be a bad strategy if they were looking to launch a massive attack on the US, given that Windows is a 90%+ marketshare product.

Congress is in the process of giving Obama the internet kill switch, so maybe they know something we don't.

Is there an internet kill switch, and if so why doesn't he already have control of it, or are they creating one? And how much of the internet would they actually kill, I presume quite a large amount of it seeming as most of the worlds serves are located in the US.

Think this has been the cause of much international debate hasn't it, because the US gorvernment hold all the keys with regards to the web, and by that I mean they decide without input from anyone else what the standards are going to be.

 

[Win7User512]

But it would not be unreasonable to presume that the Russians already have their own un official self obtained source code, and all the source code that MS has given them has done has just crossed the T's so to speak.

It's possible. I suppose it wouldn't be a bad strategy if they were looking to launch a massive attack on the US, given that Windows is a 90%+ marketshare product.

Congress is in the process of giving Obama the internet kill switch, so maybe they know something we don't.

Is there an internet kill switch, and if so why doesn't he already have control of it, or are they creating one? And how much of the internet would they actually kill, I presume quite a large amount of it seeming as most of the worlds serves are located in the US.

Think this has been the cause of much international debate hasn't it, because the US gorvernment hold all the keys with regards to the web, and by that I mean they decide without input from anyone else what the standards are going to be.

Read it and weep. I know I did.

Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel - Techworld.com

 

[Layback Bear]

Very simple to me. There use to be a U.S.S.R and a K.G.B. Now we have a Russia and a renamed K.G.B. Putin at one time was the head of the K.G.B. How could one think a name change of there security agency would stop the way they do business. Sharing source code is also simple to me. If M/S wants to sell operating systems to various countries they have to share source codes. Reason being before they buy the operating systems and put them one the various agencies computers they want to make sure there is no code in there that might allow others to monitor what they are doing. If the U.S.A government doesn't have this agreement with M/S they should.

 

[CarlTR6]

Don't know why everybody is so shocked, how hard can it be for a very tech savvy organisation with a huge resource to actually reverse engineer MS products to get the source code? Hackers and virus writers do it all the time and that is why Linux users will tell you that MS products are so full of malware.

Though it may have happened, I do not know of one case where the core code of any MS product has been reverse engineered.

Do you also think as well that the PC's that are used at NASA, The pentagon MI5 etc. will use a normal MS OS? I don't think they would, I think they will use their own bespoke OS's.

I am sure they use a contracted, special OS.

EDIT: And to also add to this, hasn't the EU as well as USA courts ordered MS to release it's source code to it's competators so they can write software for their own use?

No court has ordered MS to reveal their core code. MS does have to make it possible for software to written for use on Windows OS's. MS does this and it is to their benefit to do so.

 

[DrWho]

Bootz said, "Have you ever heard of the cold war? It wasn't really that long ago...

You think Russia doesn't spy anymore? What country doesn't have its spies and spy tactics?"

Does anyone read the newspapers or watch the news on TV?
Who did we trade all those Russian spys for? That's right, US spys!!!!
Who would have thunk it?

Anyone who thinks the Cold War is really over is leading a fools existence.

I think that the one post using the word "immigrants" actually should have read "Illegal Immigrants". That might have been more correct and less inflammatory.
Lets face it....everyone in the US except the American Indians are all immigrants, if not in this generation, then in some past generation.
I'm proud of my ancestors and where they came from and the trials and tribulations they went through so I might be here today.

But, Russia and China, are both bastions of software piracy. It "ain't purty", but it's still a fact of life. Denying it won't make it go away.

Y'all have a great day now!

The Doctor

 

[Tepid]

ReactOS had some issues with non-clean room reverse engineering that they had to clean out that delayed development for a short time. after the audit was complete, they have continued to slowly develop it. Still waiting to see a stable version. It does work by the way.

 

[Colonel Travis]

But back to the point, how difficult can it be for an organistion like the Russian government to reverse engineer MS products to get source code?

Not difficult at all - MS has been giving it to them for the better part of a decade.

 

[Tews]

I remember those days well... I was running the only C=64 BBS in town ... those were the days... a dedicated phone line on a 1200 baud modem.. weeeee!

 

[DrWho]

Dang! Where'd you get a 1200 baud modem for the C-64?
All I ever had was the 300 baud modem module that plugged into the back of the computer.
I didn't have a 1200 baud modem till I built my first PC, an IBM XT Clone.
I got the loan of a Hayes 1200 baud modem from my employer. It was a FULL Card.
I didn't run a BBS, but a young friend did on his C-64 with two of my enhanced 1541 drives. (I rewrote the OS in the drive to format a disk to 40 tracks to give it more storage capacity)

But back on the Russia................ topic.

I was at a friends house recently and he's running a Version of XP-Pro-Sp3 that he downloaded from a server in Eastern Europe (Russia ? )
When he installed it, he found that it had self-activated. He gets all the MS Updates with no problem at all. That version of XP has had most of the bloat removed and it runs really fast and takes up only a fraction of the space on the HD that the OEM version takes up.

When re-engineered versions of an OS can work and run that good, it's not surprising to me that they are so popular. Why buy an old, slow and boggy OS from MS when you can just download a much faster and more efficient version from the internet for FREE? Eh?
I'm only talking practicality, NOT Legality. That's a whole different topic.

MS isn't doing a lot to make their OS's look more inviting to the public. In fact, every new version is much bigger and more bloated than the one before it. Too bad!

 

[SiliconAddict]

Something to do with this: Redmond man with possible link to Russian spy ring deported | KOMO News - Breaking News, Sports, Traffic and Weather - Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional?

Microsoft is not very bright hiring someone like that anyway, just the fact that he is an immigrant should throw red flags up in my opinion. Not saying that they cant hire them, but they should have to go through extensive screening for reasons just like this. Seems like common sense to me.

Bootz,

I hate to break this to you but you have just leveled up to epic stupid. Do you know how many spies have been caught in the US who are foreign nationals vs. spies who are American citizens? Go ahead and Google search it. My post can wait for you.....
.
.
.
.
Seriously. I would bet my life on the fact that China and Russia have American citizens in their employment right now. I have ZERO. Absolute zero doubt of this. Techniques of recruiting such people are so vast it staggers the mind. Anything from blackmail, (such as infidelity to the spouse), to financial troubles, to women, to additions, to simple payoffs, to long term employment via generational embedded operatives, and everything in between. Its probably even easier since we are talking about a company vs. employment in the federal government.

And you think someone with a green card is going to be the most straight up means of recovering data? Wow. Really. Wow.

 

[Bootz]

... If he was spying or not who knows, but he was here illegally and Microsoft hired him. So how that makes me epic stupid for criticizing Microsoft for hiring an illegal immagrant im not sure...

I also never said American's dont work for Russia and China or companies in those countries. I more or less implied that im sure they are given the proper background checks before hire, unlike microsoft in this situation.

so please dont put words in my mouth...

I just want to say sorry for anyone i offended on this thread, but i do believe we are all entitled to our own opinions.

 

[Kari]

So how that makes me epic stupid for criticizing Microsoft for hiring an illegal immagrant im not sure...

You were not critisizing MS for hiring an illegal immigrant. This is what you said:

Microsoft is not very bright hiring someone like that anyway, just the fact that he is an immigrant should throw red flags up in my opinion.

Your original statement tells about something completely different than your later explanations. Sorry.

Kari

 

[Bootz]

So how that makes me epic stupid for criticizing Microsoft for hiring an illegal immagrant im not sure...

You were not critisizing MS for hiring an illegal immigrant. This is what you said:

Microsoft is not very bright hiring someone like that anyway, just the fact that he is an immigrant should throw red flags up in my opinion.

Your original statement tells about something completely different than your later explanations. Sorry.

Kari

How so? To me, saying they are not bright is indeed criticizing. The part about the immigrant throwing up red flags... The fact that he was an immigrant should be a basis or legit reason (not the only one) for a background check. Im not sure how that is so offending. I maybe should have worded it differently and maybe could have left out the sentence on immigrants. again im sorry for that

 

[Luckystar]

When words cannot express!!!

Lucky

 

[CarlTR6]

Bootz said, "Have you ever heard of the cold war? It wasn't really that long ago...

You think Russia doesn't spy anymore? What country doesn't have its spies and spy tactics?"

Does anyone read the newspapers or watch the news on TV?
Who did we trade all those Russian spys for? That's right, US spys!!!!
Who would have thunk it?

Anyone who thinks the Cold War is really over is leading a fools existence.

I think that the one post using the word "immigrants" actually should have read "Illegal Immigrants". That might have been more correct and less inflammatory.
Lets face it....everyone in the US except the American Indians are all immigrants, if not in this generation, then in some past generation.
I'm proud of my ancestors and where they came from and the trials and tribulations they went through so I might be here today.

But, Russia and China, are both bastions of software piracy. It "ain't purty", but it's still a fact of life. Denying it won't make it go away.

Y'all have a great day now!

The Doctor

Very well and accurately stated.