[Air-l] back to 1984

[Christoph Engemann]

Ralf Bendrath wrote:
> Peter Timusk wrote:
>
>   
>> Now my points I wonder if the intelligence agents are reading open  
>> source computer code? 
>>     
> Sure. The NSA even developed its own version of a "Security-Enhanced 
> Linux" (SELinux), which they of course have to give away under the GPL.
>   
while the german 'intelligence community' brewed its own flavor called 
'SINA' (Secure Inter-Networking Architecture), basically a stripped and 
hardened linux. interesting trivia for geeks: a micro-kernel (!) 
implementation was developed: 
http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/mikrosina/index.xml.en

of course all gpl'ed.

sina is the backbone of the vpn system used for communication between 
german embassies. the developers claim it to be the first system that is 
certified for "top-secret" communication. see: 
http://www.bsi.de/fachthem/sina/sysbesch/sysbesch.htm (german!)

for the german reades here - I published an article 'Electronic 
Government und die Free Software Bewegung: Der Hacker als Avantgarde 
Citoyen'* *investigating the gpl-sovereignty nexus in the 2006 book 
'politiken der medien', ed. daniel gethman, diaphanes verlag. I am happy 
to share (and a translation is underway).

christoph

> See http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,53004,00.html
>
> Ralf
>
>   

-- 
Christoph Engemann, Dipl. Psych.
Graduate School of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Postfach 330 440
28334 Bremen/Germany
Telephone: ++049 179 1233 933
engemann at gsss.uni-bremen.de
www.gsss.uni-bremen.de
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blogs/engemann/