Metro Spirit national security blog

Microsft has confirmed that the NSA calls had a hand in the development of Microsoft’s Vista operating system, Microsoft confirmed Tuesday.

"The National Security Agency (NSA) stepped in to help Microsoft develop a configuration of its next-generation operating system that would meet U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) requirements, said NSA spokesman Ken White."

Exactly what Department of Defense requirements are they talking about. After recent revelations in the New York Times that the Department of Defense is expanding its role in domestic intelligence gathering, this does little to inspire confidence in the security of the new software.

However, it's nothing new. Some say the Windows operating system was undermined by the NSA.

"A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors)," according to this post from 1999.