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ASPI caught spreading misinformation about open-source software

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 03, 2024

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It's not often that you find someone writing about open source software and not bothering to make mention of the licences being used. But that's precisely what Albert Zhang of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, has done.

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Zhang writes that China began pursuing the use of open source software in the 1990s, adding that software can be a risk if vulnerabilities are not patched. This is a fairly obvious thing, something like stating the sun rises in the east.

In this context, Zhang offers the example of Eternal Blue, an exploit developed by the NSA, and used in numerous attacks over the years.

"That’s why Beijing has long been suspicious of foreign operating systems such as backdoored Windows and macOS, worrying that foreign governments could be hoarding vulnerabilities that they could exploit to cripple the Chinese government’s computer networks," he writes.

Zhang appears to be blissfully unaware of the fact that back in May 2017 Abusive Monopolist Microsoft released a version of backdoored Windows 10 for use in China after the source code had been vetted by Chinese authorities. It was named backdoored Windows 10 China Government Edition.

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