Microsoft's Windows Vista and the NSA

The NSA (National Security Agency) and Microsoft have announced their partnership in developing the security for Windows Vista. Sources at Redmond indicate Microsoft’s intent is to provide an improved product, given the recent years of Windows vulnerabilities. Likewise, the NSA attributes the move as necessary for national security as Microsoft products drive the government’s workstations. NSA spokesman Ken White says, "This is not the development of code here. This is the assisting in the development of a security configuration."

For years, the NSA has created guidelines to help administrators with securing operating systems of all flavors. It is not without precedent for the agency to produce actual code, as demonstrated by their developments on SELinux which is in common use today. Conspiracy theorists argue, however, the NSA’s involvement with Windows does not allow for third party analysis due to Microsoft’s closed source policies. Considering the 1999 debacle that confounded cryptologists over the _NSAKEY found in Windows NT’s encryption libraries, conspiracy theories are not likely to dissipate over Vista either.