NSA’s involvement with Microsoft Windows Vista

Since the news broke about NSA’s involvement with Windows Vista, some in the media are trying to portray it as a conspiracy theory. I’ve read comments, such as

“News emerged this week that top cryptologists at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had a hand in some of the security features in Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista.”

“The NSA, best known for its code-breaking capabilities and covert-spying operations, loaned a team of cryptologists to the software giant for reviewing some of the security features in Vista, which is expected to be used, eventually, by hundreds of millions of computer users around the world.”

“The NSA, which was once so secretive it was referred to as “No Such Agency,” said helping secure the soon-to-be-ubiquitous OS was a matter of national interest.”

These comments imply that there is something fishy going on because NSA is involved in the process. Looks like some people are not realizing that this is not the first time that NSA has helped Microsoft. NSA was also involved in providing guidance to Microsoft to secure Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

It is great that NSA and other agencies are reviewing the Vista Security Guide. After all, Windows is the predominant operating system running on almost 90% of computers in the world, why shouldn’t government agencies and security experts be involved with ensuring Vista is a secure operating system. Microsoft has also asked North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to review Vista. We should thank Microsoft for doing this, not criticize them.