SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Last week, The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell when it reported that Russian government hackers located confidential National Security Agency material improperly stored on an employee's home computer with help from Kaspersky antivirus, which happened to be installed. On Tuesday, The New York Times and The Washington Post provided another shocker: the Russian hackers were caught in the act by spies from Israel, who were burrowed deep inside Kaspersky's corporate network around the time of the theft.
Ars Technica: How Kaspersky AV reportedly was caught helping Russian hackers steal NSA secrets
The New York Times: How Israel Caught Russian Hackers Scouring the World for U.S. Secrets
The Washington Post: Israel hacked Kaspersky, then tipped the NSA that its tools had been breached (archive)
Previously: Kaspersky Lab and Lax Contractor Blamed for Russian Acquisition of NSA Tools
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 14 2017, @09:58AM
It's not just Windows that is the problem, but proprietary software in general. Why is our government relying on software that it is not in full control of? Governments should only use software that respects the freedom of its users: Free Software. This has practical benefits (you can improve it, you're not dependent upon a single company to modify it, bugs are more easily spotted, etc.), but more importantly, the government should be promoting freedom, independence, and education, which are things that proprietary software does not allow.
If no Free Software exists for a specific purpose, the government should make it and release it for the benefit of all. Even if the software must remain secret for a time, it can still be Free Software from the government's point of view.