Despite Sanctions, Russian Organisations Acquire Microsoft Software (reuters.com) 44
An anonymous reader shares a report: Software produced by Microsoft has been acquired by state organizations and firms in Russia and Crimea despite sanctions barring U.S-based companies from doing business with them, official documents show. The acquisitions, registered on the Russian state procurement database, show the limitations in the way foreign governments and firms enforce the U.S. sanctions, imposed on Russia over its annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Some of the users gave Microsoft fictitious data about their identity, people involved in the transactions told Reuters, exploiting a gap in the U.S. company's ability to keep its products out of their hands. The products in each case were sold via third parties and Reuters has no evidence that Microsoft sold products directly to entities hit by the sanctions. "Microsoft has a strong commitment to complying with legal requirements and we have been looking into this matter in recent weeks," a Microsoft representative said in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.
or the bizzarro world title... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
They dont care (Score:2, Funny)
They dont care because the jokes on them and us. It's full of backdoors!
Re: (Score:1)
Reddit (Score:2)
Presumably they just bought it from https://www.reddit.com/r/micro... [reddit.com] like the rest of us?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You are aware of consumer laws, at least a little bit, yes, no, maybe. Conditions of sale in most countries need to be clearly stated at the point of sale and unlike corrupt US states, post purchase agreements have no legal binding because of the costs of making that purchase are not refunded with the purchase (reviewing store and product, going to store, returning from store, installing product, all should be refunded, including installing the product and returning to the store). Now many countries rule th
Re: (Score:2)
Either that or the U.S. agencies such as the CIA and NSA happen to overlook the sanctions because "in the spirit of good will".
Isn't "You must run Microsoft" itself a sanction? (Score:5, Funny)
Using Microsoft software sure is a punishment.
Online sanctions? What are those (Score:1)
I don't get it. (Score:5, Insightful)
I assume Microsoft can't offer support for this software, and I very much doubt Russian authorities would crack down on the copyright infringement, so what's the point of paying for a license that holds no legal significance to anyone involved?
Re: (Score:2)
Yar.
Re: (Score:2)
I assume Microsoft can't offer support for this software, and I very much doubt Russian authorities would crack down on the copyright infringement, so what's the point of paying for a license that holds no legal significance to anyone involved?
I am asking this in all seriousness - Who actually needs support from Microsoft? If these Russian users are just using Office and Windows and they bought them for compatibility reasons, they don't care about support they were never going to use. Now if you tell me that a huge percentage of the software buys were for Exchange servers, I'd be a lot more inclined towards your argument.
I'm torn... (Score:5, Insightful)
Should I be worried that the Russians will get their hands on Microsoft product and learn where it's vulnerable and come up with ways to bring down the West's businesses? Or should I be comforted to know that the Russians will soon find their computing infrastructure subject to all the virii and worms that the West has to deal with?
Re: (Score:2)
Since Mr Putin has ordered that all Russian government systems, at least, should be moved off American software as soon as possible, I don't think your second scenario is at all likely.
"Amid U.S. effort to exclude Kaspersky, Putin backs plan to force out foreign software"
https://www.cyberscoop.com/rus... [cyberscoop.com]
And there is no need to worry that the stupid Russians won't be able to provide their own software:
"In a study of hundreds of thousands of programmers, China and Russia were found to produce the best softwar
Re: (Score:2)
Smarter nations would have looked back over computer history. Learned from well placed spies about how software and networks get used by other nations.
Fund their own new look Ada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and support a national hardware CPU effort?
Keep on buying and using a network access point for the NSA, MI6, CIA, GCHQ?
Have
Inexplicable (Score:2)
"Despite Sanctions, Russian Organisations Acquire Microsoft Software"
Why???
Shooting themselves in the foot. (Score:5, Informative)
If we're being honest with ourselves, there is no better way to destroy someone's "cybersecurity" than to have them rely on Microsoft products. Frankly, anyone relying on them is asking for trouble.
What software? (Score:2)
"Software produced by Microsoft" could mean anything from "Windows Server 2016" to "Clippy". The article gives no indication what they're talking about.
How do I get on the sanctions list? (Score:2)
If Microsoft realy want to comply (Score:2)
If Microsoft realy want to comply with the sanctin, they should desactivate they software that run inside the Russian border.
Good day, my name is Middleman. (Score:1)
They Acquired that Software?? (Score:2)