Back door bizplan
I wonder which tech companies have cooperated with the government by putting hidden back doors into their software? For those not in the know, back doors are secret ways to get into software, usually by typing something odd at an unexpected place in the program's execution.
Clearly the major virus checker programs do this, or they might accidentally turn up government spyware like the FBI program that used to be called Magic Lantern.
Google almost certainly does, because it's the cheapest way for them to comply with routine government queries.
The rumors have abounded for years that Microsoft has always put secret places in WIndows, Access and maybe Office, although I've never seen a shred of proof that they have. In fact, a developer for VIsta flatly denied that the company did so.
So who else might be doing this? Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, AOL? The credit card companies? The Patriot Act makes it easy for them to justify it because they'd have had to comply anyway.
I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone who knows of any backdoors in commercial software at the government's request.
Posted on March 16, 2006