Linus Torvalds admits he was asked to insert a backdoor into GNU/Linux

[Patrick]

http://mashable.com/2013/09/19/linus-torvalds-backdoor-linux/

No, the Government Never Asked Linus Torvalds for a Backdoor in Linux

"Oh, Christ. It was obviously a joke, no government agency has ever asked
me for a backdoor in Linux," Torvalds told *Mashable* via email. "Really.
Cross my heart and hope to die, really."


On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 5:19 PM, Andy Isaacson <adi at hexapodia.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 02:48:37PM -0500, CypherPunk wrote:
> > On 09/19/2013 02:39 PM, Tom Ritter wrote:
> > >> Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the
> > >> audience broke into spontaneous laughter.
> > >
> > > Is there any indication he took the question seriously and wasn't just
> > > making a joke?  This is a lot to conclude from a single sentence.
> >
> > While he certainly could have been being humorous, I can't see why he
> > would have indicated 'yes' for any reason.
>
> Because it's funny, and one of the ways that humans deal with stressful
> situations is through humor.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_humour#Humor_as_defense_mechanism
>
> Having seen Linus give many talks through the years, I can assure you
> that he might make such a joke regardless of the true situation.
>
> > I mean, he could have made a
> > funny comment or something sarcastic or any number of other responses.
> > The shaking his head yes while saying now would seem to indicate that
> > he's been told not to say that he's been asked.
>
> Or it might indicate that he knew it would get a laugh from the
> audience.  It's invalid to read detail into a single such comment.
>
> > It would seem logical that he would have been approached though. I mean,
> > they want total tech coverage. Why would Linux escape their attention?
>
> It would seem logical, yes.  It would also seem logical for Them (tm) to
> game-theory two more stages, and specifically avoid asking the most
> prominent maintainers in favor of pressuring or encouraging lower-level
> contributors to insert (or avoid fixing) bugdoors.  I don't think we
> have enough information to make an informed judgement which scenario has
> happened.
>
> -andy
>
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