Suspect Claims Al Qaeda Hacked Microsoft

The Link: http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/173039.html

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A suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network claimed that Islamic militants infiltrated Microsoft and sabotaged the company's Windows XP

During interrogation, Afroze, 25, claimed that a member or members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, posing as computer programmers, were able to gain employment at Microsoft and attempted to plant "trojans, trapdoors, and bugs in Windows XP," according to Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, a New Delhi information systems and telecommunication consultant.

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I think we can safely pass this off as BS. How are a bunch of dirt farmers form Afghanistan supposed to get jobs at M$ by posing computer programmers? M$ might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but they sure don’t hire hobo’s off the street. I’m pretty sure that you would have to demonstrate some of your skills before they even consider hireling you. Besides why even place bugs in windows, the M$ programmers will do it for you anyways.

whether or not this story is true...and i doubt it....

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bunch of dirt farmers form Afghanistan supposed to get jobs at M$ by posing computer programmers?

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this makes me think you assume because someone is from afganistan that they are not able to learn to be a programmer...don't forget that most of al queda aren't afghani...they're saudi, sudanese, and a whole bunch of others...some with very high levels of education...some not...but to dismiss the whole group as "dirt farmers" is very dangerous and foolish...it's one of the reasons 911 happened...no one believed it could...

Good point zigar. But the comment and the end was just ment as a little joke. Guess i'm just politically incorrect red neck at heart.

I would like to see the proof that he even held a job at MS. Aside from "claiming that he did", maybe he did, and I missed that part of the article. This looks like a 'copycat'. Someone trying to gain noteriety. About being a big bad Al-Qaeda terrorist.

Some of the best programmers come from poor nations. That is what makes computers so kick ass. Is that, anyone can become very good. No matter who they are, where they are, even if they are handi-capped.

I heard about it on the news, and the guy was from FLordia I believe, and working with Al Qaeda.

MS is perfectly able to put in their own bugs
without help from Osama Bin Laden.

That said, it is probably a good idea to be a little
more concerned with who is hired by software
companies.

It's not enough that they have talent, but what they
intend to do with their talent. And BTW, that applies equally to
home-grown citizens.
There are a lot of people out there that you don't want
wandering around the halls of Microsoft.
:cool:

Excellent post...This post makes antionline all worth my time today!! :)

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There are a lot of people out there that you don't want wandering around the halls of Microsoft.

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And there are a lot of them you don't want wandering the halls of your company, but yet some of them are offered "jobs" with the government.

;)

I saw this even before XP came out... Or was it just after...Anyways i think it is bullshit.. I have found no backdoors in my windowsxp

Remember that The Boot sector infector was written by 2 pakistani brothers, and that was about 20 years ago!
PakBrain and Brain, which was spread by a Warez version of an office application, and hit the us by students shring the files.

Here`s more info on the virus .
http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/~janda/sladehis.html#C11
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Preep

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A suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network claimed that Islamic militants infiltrated Microsoft and sabotaged the company's Windows XP.

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This is not really true. Once the evil Al Qaeda h4><0rs got into XP they realised that the OS was already buggy enough and didn't really need to be sabotaged. However, they did change some comments at the top of the code to read, "Bill is a big Weiny Head!!!" ;).

Yep, sounds like crap to me. If you really think that an OS, or any other software, goes directly from the programmer to the users you are mistaken. Certainly bugs get through, as evidenced by MS in particular, but one must bear in mind the (unneccessary) complexity of the code, the competence of the Quality Assurance personnel, the competence of the programmers themselves, etc, etc. MS didn't get rich by distibuting virus-ridden software or by having a lack of quality checkpoints. Whether you like MS or not, you have to realize that. Don't forget that 99% of Windows users don't even have an inkling to check around for security holes/weaknesses, etc. It's people with exceptional knowledge about such things that find them and, most importantly (dangerous or not), exploit them.

And more to a point..."dirt farmers"?...please knock that **** off. Breeding distrust and hatred is exactly what is tearing everything apart. And no, it wasn't a 'joke', since it wasn't funny. I grew up in a town full of 'rednecks', and I could do without them. But hey, it takes all kinds(even me, yeah?) to move the world, right?

Ouroboros

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Originally posted here by cwk9
The Link: http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/173039.html

I think we can safely pass this off as BS. How are a bunch of dirt farmers form Afghanistan supposed to get jobs at M$ by posing computer programmers? M$ might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but they sure don’t hire hobo’s off the street.

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Actually, M$ makes a very pronounced habit of hiring people "straight out of school," which is pretty much equivalent to "hiring off the street." If you happen to be in Redmond and, well, can demonstrate relative competence in code, I'm guessing that you probably stand at least a fair shake in consideration for the ineviteably numerous number of jobs at The Enemy -- if that weren't true, well, M$ would be considered discriminatory.

(and, having friends that work for M$, I can assure you that the company contains numerous members of those generalized ethnic backgrounds said to be "terrorist affiliated" -- granted, that's all a huge generality, but... it's certainly not something that I, as a private citizen, am going to be able to rule out - that sort of task/determination is best left to the authorities)