News
German Army Bans Microsoft Software
- By Scott Bekker
- 03/19/2001
The German army and foreign office will ban Microsoft software in sensitive areas due to concerns that the U.S. National Security Agency has complete access to Microsoft source code, according to a German news magazine.
“In computers which were installed in sensitive areas, no software from Microsoft should continue to be used,” reported Der Spiegel over the weekend. “According to the opinions of German security authorities, the American espionage service NSA can avail itself of all the relevant source codes of the U.S. firm and can therefore read encoded data.”
The German foreign office has also postponed plans to set up videoconferences with its overseas offices because the system would have routed the sessions through Denver.
“We might as well hold our conferences right at Langley,” Der Spiegel quoted an anonymous colleague of the German secretary of state as saying. Langley, Va., is the headquarters of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. --
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.