Microsoft confirmed earlier this week the fact that the US National Security Agency (NSA) provided the Redmond Company with feedback on the security of Windows Vista. "Our intention is to help everyone with security," said Tony W. Sager, the NSA's chief of vulnerability analysis and operations group. The Redmond Company failled to place any focus on the NSA's contributions on Vista, but it did acknowledge the fact that the governmental agency played a role in the elaboration of the "Windows Vista Security Guide"

"Feedback from these agencies as well as enterprise customers informed Microsoft's development of a security configuration guide to aid governments and other large organizations in deploying and configuring Windows Vista to meet their specific security and privacy needs," commented a Microsoft representative.

However, according to Microsoft, no third party entities had any involvement in the actual development of the operating system, including its security features. Don Armstrong, a senior program manager for Microsoft's Government Security Program revealed that - although a total of nine agencies across no less than five countries had contributed with input to the Windows Vista Security Guide - neither of them were involved in the code development process.

This is not the first time that Microsoft turned to the NSA for feedback. The Redmond Company and the National Security Agency have collaborated in the past for the creation of security guides underlining best practices for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Currently, Microsoft is offering a revamped variant of the Windows Vista Security Guide, namely version 1.2. The Redmond Company updated and re-released the Vista security guide due to issues related to the creation of group policy objects.