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We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

blogs.microsoft.com

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Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#11

Post by lern_too_spel »

polack wrote: post #8

"Last week, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) successfully executed a court order to disrupt and transfer control of six internet domains..." What does this mean? Was the domains hosted on Microsoft DNS servers? Or did Microsoft get a court order to go after domains hosted by other companies? I'm probably missing something, but isn't that the job of the police?

The article says what it means and lists the six domain names. The domain names look like domain names owned by Microsoft and its customers, so Microsoft can take them down for impersonation.

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#12

Post by lern_too_spel »

mtgx wrote: post #2

I like most of Brad Smith's initiatives, but I hope the end-goal here isn't to just put more Windows on voting machines. Because the last voting machines that got Windows are some of the least secure devices around, many of them still unpatched for many years. I know that's not all Microsoft's fault, but if that's their "solution" or others similar to it, then we'd be better off without them in the long term. And tha…

This has nothing to do with voting machines. It's the public announcement of Microsoft's equivalent to https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection/

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#13

Post by _8j50 »

polack wrote: post #8

"Last week, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) successfully executed a court order to disrupt and transfer control of six internet domains..." What does this mean? Was the domains hosted on Microsoft DNS servers? Or did Microsoft get a court order to go after domains hosted by other companies? I'm probably missing something, but isn't that the job of the police?

Latter,they work with governments a lot to take down malware domains and such

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#14

Post by lern_too_spel »

montenegrohugo wrote: post #3

"It’s clear that democracies around the world are under attack. Foreign entities are launching cyber strikes to disrupt elections and sow discord. Unfortunately, the internet has become an avenue for some governments to steal and leak information, spread disinformation, and probe and potentially attempt to tamper with voting systems. We saw this during the United States general election in 2016, last May during the F…

It's not a political position. It's a statement of fact (excluding your presumption, which wasn't implied in the article) supported by both national political parties and the sitting president. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/us/politics/trump-putin-r...

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#15

Post by polack »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #11
polack wrote: post #8

"Last week, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) successfully executed a court order to disrupt and transfer control of six internet domains..." What does this mean? Was the domains hosted on Microsoft DNS servers? Or did Microsoft get a court order to go after domains hosted by other companies? I'm probably missing something, but isn't that the job of the police?

The article says what it means and lists the six domain names. The domain names look like domain names owned by Microsoft and its customers, so Microsoft can take them down for impersonation.

Not all of them where impersonating Microsoft domains. Still can't understand how Microsoft managed to take these domains down if they weren't hosted by Microsoft in the first place.

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#16

Post by polack »

_8j50 wrote: post #13
polack wrote: post #8

"Last week, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) successfully executed a court order to disrupt and transfer control of six internet domains..." What does this mean? Was the domains hosted on Microsoft DNS servers? Or did Microsoft get a court order to go after domains hosted by other companies? I'm probably missing something, but isn't that the job of the police?

Latter,they work with governments a lot to take down malware domains and such

Why is the court letting Microsoft handle these cases? I understand it's convenient if Microsoft is the one detecting the domains and handing the case over to a court. But shouldt't these crimes be investigated by proper police?

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#17

Post by zaarn »

It's seems this is quite an acceptable plan to move forward. MS doesn't seem to plan to intervene in local politics, merely shield against foreign politics intervening in local politics. Especially when you offer those services in foreign countries, the other players seem to fail spectacularly.

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#18

Post by lern_too_spel »

singularity2001 wrote: post #5

By subverting privacy Microsoft is a threat to democracy itself.

This is a non sequitur. It is not clear that privacy (specifically privacy of data on Microsoft systems from court order, if that's what you mean) is necessary for democracy. On the other hand, the ability to unmask people who are subverting elections is useful for democracy.

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#19

Post by swebs »

singularity2001 wrote: post #5

By subverting privacy Microsoft is a threat to democracy itself.

Seriously. This is the same Microosoft that collects keystrokes, webcam footage, browsing behavior, file system use, and dozens of other analytics from every computer running Windows. And now they're pushing to have government officials dependant on them. They have a million times more data than Cambridge Analytica at this point. Who knows how much damage they could do?

Re: We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy

#20

Post by lern_too_spel »

swebs wrote: post #19
singularity2001 wrote: post #5

By subverting privacy Microsoft is a threat to democracy itself.

Seriously. This is the same Microosoft that collects keystrokes, webcam footage, browsing behavior, file system use, and dozens of other analytics from every computer running Windows. And now they're pushing to have government officials dependant on them. They have a million times more data than Cambridge Analytica at this point. Who knows how much damage they could do?

> This is the same Microosoft that collects keystrokes, webcam footage, browsing behavior, file system use, and dozens of other analytics from every computer running Windows.

{{Citation needed}}

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