NSA motives

[Peter Magnusson]

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005, Stephen Smalley wrote:

>> What if some with evil reasons uses SELinux? Or have NSA realized that the
>> old tactic doesnt work and its better to secure so many systems as possible
>> instead. To help millions to have a more secure system is worth more than
>> to possible prevent a few bad guys to also have secure systems. Probably
>> leading that it will be more complicated or impossible for NSA to break in?
>
> Improving the security of COTS (commercial off the shelf) systems is
> necessary to meet the security needs of our customers.  Yes, there is
> the potential for abuse, but such tradeoffs are inevitable.

Ok, that was the answer I was looking for.

>> Im sure NSA would love to have backdoor to SELinux if someone with evil
>> reasons (what NSA thinks is evil) uses SELinux. Since SELinux is open
>> source it cant be something obviously because it will be found very
>> quickly. Must be something that its really, really well hidden.
> That would be a rather foolish strategy, given that SELinux is
> publically associated with NSA and the code is open.

Yes it would.