[Talisker]

Too many “back doors” are found in software and hardware. I think government agents have planted a lot of these things to use against U.S. and foreign computer users. Some through paying off the development company, some through maybe appealing to their “patriotism”, some through agents working in the industry. Too many found all the time to be accidental.

I was at a developer's soiree, long ago, and the discussion over drinks was backdoor security in e-money. One major e-money developer told me flatly that there literally was no value in marketing e-money without a government-accessible backdoor. And when I asked about user security, he just laughed.

[r_barton]

I worked for HP for 30 years. The story going around the company during the 1st Gulf War (1991). It seems the CIA had planted a computer virus in the HP printer firmware on the printers the Iraqis were using in their government and military bases. They would clear the virus out of their PC’s but as soon as they turned on the printer again, the PC would be re-infected. Don’t know if they ever figured out were the virus was coming from that disabled their pc’s.

The government has its fingers in the computer industry since the beginning.