Da Story... (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060810-7466.html)The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday issued an unusual press release urging Windows users to apply a specific security patch from Microsoft. That patch, MS06-040, was just released as part of Microsoft's monthly cycle of security updates, so most home users should already be secure. IT departments and home users who have disabled automatic updates should install the patch as soon as possible. As the DHS ominously notes, "attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems routinely occur within 24 hours of the release of a security patch."

Because the DHS warning was so unusual, it has prompted some wild talk that the Microsoft security patch is, in reality, a government surveillance tool designed to spy on Windows users around the world.



Clean your windows so we can look in and see what you-would-be-terrorist are doing. Would it surprise anyone if you were to find that a patch was really some way for the DHS to spy on you? I'd be surprised if something like this didn't exist.

Who says they haven't already? Surely we can't trust Microsoft to tell us everything they're putting on our computers, can we? Write some high-end code and hit the Linux users, too. Slip it in with spyware or just put it on the code of a game or other application. That way we'd happily put it on our computers ourselves without ever knowing it.

I thought u were on about the windows in our house, so they can get a eyefull of muslims making bombs.

it was on the newspapers about a year ago that they found that some printer companies (i think it was HP) were making printers so that each different printer produced a different microscopic unique pattern. This wasn't a conspiracy by the way, the patterns were there and anyone with the technology could see them. It appeared there was no gov connections.

it was on the newspapers about a year ago that they found that some printer companies (i think it was HP) were making printers so that each different printer produced a different microscopic unique pattern. This wasn't a conspiracy by the way, the patterns were there and anyone with the technology could see them. It appeared there was no gov connections.
Hell, Nature already does that with all its organisms, too.

yeah, it makes using dos sound all the more attractive

the department of homeland security can clean my ass.

which, incidentally, im sure they will do when i arrive back in the states with my ukrainian wife ("COMMIE!!! QUICK KILL IT BEFORE IT BREEDS!!").