Just about any film that has watched
spy movies is familiar with authorities asking a person to produce
papers proving they are not a spy. According to a report by Reuters
yesterday the Russian government is asking a similar question of
United States technology giant Apple
and European software giant SAP.
The reason for the question was to make sure the two companies were
not carrying embedded codes that could make their software government
spying tools.
“The
revelations of Edward Snowden in 2013 and public statements of US
intelligence to strengthen surveillance of Russia in 2014 raised the
question seriously the confidence of foreign software and hardware,”
said Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov . “It is obvious
that those companies that disclose the source code of their programs,
are not hiding anything, but those who do not intend to cooperate
with Russia on this issue may have undeclared capabilities in their
products.”
Some of
you are probably asking “Why isn't Redmond-based Microsoft getting
the same treatment?” The answer according to Mr. Nikiforov is that
starting in 2003 the Redmond-based giant has been sharing all of
their source with technology institute Atlas. Atlas then reports
their finding to Russia government.
"Obviously,
companies which disclose the source code of their programmes are not
hiding anything, but those who do not intend to establish cooperation
with Russia on this issue may have undeclared capabilities in their
products," Nikiforov said.
With
the except of open source that have an external revenue source, most
companies kept their source codes a highly guarded secret. The reason
for this is that the source code is what translates the software into
basic machine language. Meaning that whoever has the source code has
the power to modify the software. An good example is Linux since it
is open-source there are dozens of variation of the software
available.
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