Microsoft is taking steps to make its customers’ data more secure in the wake of revelations about government spying. The company was implicated in National Security Agency snooping operations after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents related to the agency’s activities earlier this year. Government spying on Microsoft’s servers constitutes a persistent threat as serious as “sophisticated malware or cyberattacks,” said Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president of legal and corporate affairs.
Vendor window dressing designed to make consumers warm and fuzzy.
At the end of the day the relationship is simple. When the government says jump these vendors will, without exception, ask how high. Should the information leak to the public hey may put up a token fight to at least give the appearance that they care, but much of it is done behind closed doors and never made public.
If you don't want information to be made available to Big Brother - at least not easily - you have one and only one choice: keep that information on paper, or if you must, on a computer not connected to your network. Once it's in a vendor's hands, any expectation of privacy is just plain silly.
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Microsoft Cranks Up Security to Lock Out Government Spies
Posted by: Kris Holt December 5, 2013 01:31 PMMicrosoft is taking steps to make its customers’ data more secure in the wake of revelations about government spying. The company was implicated in National Security Agency snooping operations after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents related to the agency’s activities earlier this year. Government spying on Microsoft’s servers constitutes a persistent threat as serious as “sophisticated malware or cyberattacks,” said Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president of legal and corporate affairs.
At the end of the day the relationship is simple. When the government says jump these vendors will, without exception, ask how high. Should the information leak to the public hey may put up a token fight to at least give the appearance that they care, but much of it is done behind closed doors and never made public.
If you don't want information to be made available to Big Brother - at least not easily - you have one and only one choice: keep that information on paper, or if you must, on a computer not connected to your network. Once it's in a vendor's hands, any expectation of privacy is just plain silly.