Lenovo: Companies working in China may have to install local backdoors

Re:Lenovo: Companies working in China may have to install lo... by Laforet on Thursday September 20, 2018 @12:42AM (#18029837)

No. The source code is shipped to a system integrator based in China, vetted by both parties and under strict NDA, who then edit the code with required changes, compile and ship the binary to government users.

MS have, for a long time, allowed major customers to audit Windows source code on site but they are still forbidden from making copies. The whole setup is meant to avoid shipping source code directly.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lenovo: Companies working in China may have to install lo... by exikyut on Thursday September 20, 2018 @08:50PM (#18036456)

Thanks for the insight.

I'm guessing the on-site/NDA combination is intended to prevent another Mainsoft (and all the other leaks...) from happening.

I wonder if I stand a chance of turning up a copy of Chinese-governmental Windows 10. Would be awesome.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lenovo: Companies working in China may have to install lo... by krylon on Thursday September 20, 2018 @01:58AM (#18030100)

Why does Microsoft not make those changes themselves? Does the Chinese government not want them to know what changes they want?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lenovo: Companies working in China may have to install lo... by exikyut on Thursday September 20, 2018 @08:52PM (#18036459)

Well, obviously politics, burden of blame, and plausible deniability, and all that. Microsoft never made the changes themselves, they've no real idea what happened, they just sat in a corner of the room and glanced at the devs' screens once in a while to make sure they didn't look like they were stealing anything.

[ Parent | on HN ]