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[ROFL]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/06/microsoft-bugs-spying/66240/

In a move as fiendishly clever as it is galling, Microsoft tells the U.S. government about bugs in its notoriously buggy software before it fixes them so that intelligence agencies can use the vulnerabilities for the purposes of cyberspying. "That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes," sources tell Bloomberg's Michael Riley. But still, the biggest software company on Earth is holding off on its blue-screen-of-death problems to turn them into real-life spy features, an impressive feat that will no doubt frustrate consumers: We are, after all, waiting for our computers to work so the nation's spy services — almost certainly including the National Security Agency, given its massive espionage umbrella — can take advantage of the problems with them first. their mistakes first.

That's just one of the many ways the U.S. government and tech companies work together in fiendish ways to more easily allow for complex surveillance, according to Bloomberg's in-depth report

 

[shantyman]

Funny that the headline did no include this:

"That information can be used to protect government computers ..."

 

[Bornstellar]

I haven't had a BSOD in ages...

 

[radios shipping overview]

Funny that the headline did no include this:

"That information can be used to protect government computers ..."

How about the full Bloomberg quote?

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world’s largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft (MSFT) and other software or Internet security companies have been aware that this type of early alert allowed the U.S. to exploit vulnerabilities in software sold to foreign governments, according to two U.S. officials. Microsoft doesn’t ask and can’t be told how the government uses such tip-offs, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, said those releases occur in cooperation with multiple agencies and are designed to give government “an early start” on risk assessment and mitigation.

"We're not gonna say that we're helping you guys spy, but..."

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

For some historical context, in the 1990's there was a Bill introduced that tried to make it legally mandatory for the creators of cryptographic protocols to include back-doors into them so that the government could break these codes. The PGP protocol was released in direct response to this, although that rule never became legally binding. The protocol's creator was taken to court though, because at the time any algorithm that made use of cryptographic keys of more than 40 bits in length was considered to be a "munition", which he had exported.