Ralf Bendrath wrote:
Peter Timusk wrote:
Now my points I wonder if the intelligence agents are reading open source computer code?
Sure. The NSA even developed its own version of a "Security-Enhanced Linux" (SELinux), which they of course have to give away under the GPL.
while the german 'intelligence community' brewed its own flavor called 'SINA' (Secure Inter-Networking Architecture), basically a stripped and hardened linux. interesting trivia for geeks: a micro-kernel (!) implementation was developed: http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/mikrosina/index.xml.en of course all gpl'ed. sina is the backbone of the vpn system used for communication between german embassies. the developers claim it to be the first system that is certified for "top-secret" communication. see: http://www.bsi.de/fachthem/sina/sysbesch/sysbesch.htm (german!) for the german reades here - I published an article 'Electronic Government und die Free Software Bewegung: Der Hacker als Avantgarde Citoyen'* *investigating the gpl-sovereignty nexus in the 2006 book 'politiken der medien', ed. daniel gethman, diaphanes verlag. I am happy to share (and a translation is underway). christoph
See http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,53004,00.html
Ralf
-- Christoph Engemann, Dipl. Psych. Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Bremen Postfach 330 440 28334 Bremen/Germany Telephone: ++049 179 1233 933 engemann@gsss.uni-bremen.de www.gsss.uni-bremen.de http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blogs/engemann/