Is Microsoft a Threat to National Security? Policy, Products, Penetrations, and Honeypots

Abstract

Is Microsoft a threat to national security? This thesis evaluates Microsoft's policies, business model, and products to determine whether Microsoft is a threat to national security. The first part of this thesis investigated Microsoft's policies and products. In the second part of this thesis, two networks were investigated. The first network, which will be known as network honey, was designed and configured to examine the techniques of hackers. The second network, which will be known as network X, is a real business enterprise network that was the target for penetration testing. The investigation provided an inside look at the security threats in Microsoft Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft Server 2000 SP4, and Microsoft Server 2003 SP2 operating systems on a network. The results of this investigation serve as a microcosm to a macro-problem. Microsoft Windows networks are too vulnerable to serve as the backbone for any institution or organization's networking infrastructure, especially entities considered to be government critical infrastructures.