Analyst says that the Chinese authorities see Windows 8 as a national threat

May 27, 2014 08:43 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft says that it's working with China to make Windows 8 the preferred choice
   Microsoft says that it's working with China to make Windows 8 the preferred choice

Windows 8 remains a forbidden product on government computers in China, even though Microsoft said that it was working with local authorities to revert the decision, but more information emerge from local IT experts who are trying to explain the idea behind the ban.

While China has remained tight-lipped on this, media reports across the world pointed to the recent Windows XP end-of-support as the main reason for the decision, with some people saying that the Chinese government actually wanted to fight back after Microsoft forced them to purchase genuine licenses just before pulling the plug on the operating system.

Ni Guangnan, who works as an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has strong ties with the software industry in China, told WantChinaTimes that the government might have actually banned Windows 8 because it was afraid that the United States could use the operating system as a spying tool.

And the explanation is as simple as it could be. Windows 8 comes by default with Windows Defender and Windows SmartScreen, two security solutions supposed to protect users and block malware from reaching the computers running the operating system. However, both are receiving updates and improvements from Microsoft, so the government was afraid that the United States could actually use Windows 8 to install backdoors on their computers and thus access secret data.

Since Windows 8 was supposed to be installed on government computers, local authorities have been even more worried, so at some level, their decision could actually make sense.

Obviously, Microsoft does not agree with such claims and said that while it's working with Chinese authorities to make Windows 8 an allowed product on local computers, it's also offering Windows 7 as an alternative.

Still, this isn't the first time when the government of a state claims that Windows 8 might hide backdoors that could be used by the United States or intelligence agencies to access national secrets.

Germany, for example, recommended local governments to avoid using Windows 8 because Microsoft and the United States National Security Agency could access data stored on computers running this particular OS version.

"Due to the loss of full sovereignty over the information technology, the security objectives of ' confidentiality' and ' integrity' can no longer be guaranteed," some leaked documents that were released last year noted, while also revealed that Germany wanted all computers to stay on Windows 7. "This can have significant consequences on the IT security of the Federal Administration."

Microsoft has obviously denied all claims and explained that Windows 8 is one of the most secure OS versions to date. At the same time, the company has denied the collaboration with the US government and the NSA, as leaked documents claim that Redmond provided intelligence agencies with unlimited access to user accounts.