[ale] China chooses FreeBSD as basis for secure OS

[preston.lists at gmail.com (Preston Boyington)]

Richard Faulkner wrote:
> Okay...this then brings up an interesting proposition.  Is it possible 
> to build a tenable backdoor in a distro that would go unnoticed at 
> source code level?  For security purposes would it be better to develop 
> (as a state) your own updates rather than take distro updates from 
> source?  Could this mark a threat to security as we see it?

yes.  there's a lot of code to look through so, in the past, things have 
been slipped in.  eventually though it gets found because of the "many 
eyes" that are working from said code.


two other interesting things to note (not sure if totally related mind 
you) are the fact that several years ago anti-virus companies sold the 
virus definitions to China and Microsoft has given their source code to 
China as well.

so perhaps they don't want to be infected by what they have cooking? 
seems possible to me.