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74 lines
3.4 KiB
74 lines
3.4 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2013-07-12">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>New Snowden leak: Storing your data at Microsoft is negligent</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>New Snowden leak: Storing your data at Microsoft is negligent</h1>
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<p>In an <a
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href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data/">article
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published today, The Guardian</a> describes how Microsoft is actively
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cooperating with the NSA. According to the article, Microsoft is providing
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the NSA with broad access to the communications of anyone using the
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company's services:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Microsoft gives the NSA access to encrypted mails on Hotmail, Live.com and Outlook.com, as well as web chat messages.</li>
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<li>Microsoft provides the NSA with easy access to its SkyDrive storage service, which currently has 250 million users worldwide.</li>
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<li>Microsoft makes it possible for the NSA to monitor audio and video calls on the Skype service which it acquired in 2011.</li>
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</ul>
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<blockquote><p>"This makes it clear that trusting Microsoft with your
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critical company data is downright negligent," says Karsten Gerloff,
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President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "In both the public and
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the private sector, those responsible for security and data protection
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urgently need to take action to protect their organisations, customers
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and clients."</p></blockquote>
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<p>While it is difficult or impossible to entirely escape surveillance,
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there are ways to minimise the risk that sensitive data, such as
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confidential product data or patient records, is intercepted by a third
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party. Free Software solutions for groupware, office products and operating
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systems are fully auditable, and often data security a priority. End-to-end
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encryption with Free Software products such as <a
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href="http://gnupg.org">GnuPG</a> and <a
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href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging">
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off-the-record messaging (OTR)</a> protects data in transit. Products
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providing secure audio, video and chat communications, such as <a
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href="https://jitsi.org/">Jitsi</a>, go a long way towards replacing
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Skype.</p>
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<blockquote><p>"We advise companies and all other organisations that wish
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to protect their data to use Free Software solutions, to store data
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in-house wherever possible, and to cooperate only with providers whom
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they trust to protect their customers' data," says Gerloff. "Such
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providers will often use strong encryption, and minimise the amount of
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data they store. Using smaller providers instead of global IT companies
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makes it somewhat less likely that customers' data will be caught in the
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NSA's dragnet."</p></blockquote>
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<p>Users should actively take control of their data and communications. One
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way to do so is to support the developers of Free Software encryption
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technologies, so they can continue to provide these important products.
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"Now is a good time to <a
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href="http://g10code.com/gnupg-donation.html">donate to the Free Software
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PGP implementation GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG)</a>!", says Matthias
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Kirschner, FSFE's Head of Public Awareness.</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="encryption"/>
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<tag key="microsoft"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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