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

Stakewinner00 davidroman96 at gmail.com
Fri Sep 20 07:59:23 PDT 2013


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On 20/09/2013 16:34, Patrick wrote:
> 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
>>
> 
I think that the Goverment don't need to ask for a Backdoor in Linux.
The goverment can ask Intel for a Backdoor in the hardware.
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