● 03.21.13

●● E-mails of Australians Compromised by Microsoft, a US-based Company With Very Bad Record on Privacy

Posted in Australia, Microsoft at 5:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Telstra, the largest ISP in Australia, gives away customers’ communications for US surveillance through Microsoft

Summary: Another worrying step from a Microsoft-occupied telecom in Australia and a reminder of the implications

Telstra got filled with Microsoft moles and now we witness yet more of the outcomes, some of which we covered here before:

“It looks like Australia’s largest ISP is working closely with Microsoft and will soon be letting them handle customers emails using Outlook.com. The setup guide is available here. An interesting move, considering the National Broadband Network rollout is coming. What’s in the future for other ISPs and how they handle email in Australia? Are the days of ISPs providing in-house email servers coming to an end?”

This is not acceptable, but more and more companies seem to be outsourcing their E-mail to so-called ‘clouds’. Those who outsource to ISPs too are going to come under the same dangerous umbrella, albeit indirectly.

BT, the ISP I unfortunately rely on the most, uses Yahoo which Microsoft abducted as well. I use it neither for incoming nor outgoing mail traffic, except as an ISP which uses DPI to infiltrate packets content (I use encryption too). The unfortunate thing is, when sending mail to people who are in those so-called ‘clouds’, GMail included, privacy on neither side (sender and receiver) can be assured. Telstra’s move ensures that yet more mail will inevitably be piped through the US surveillance system, almost definitely to be retained indefinitely by the NSA.

So even Australians are now tracked by their E-mails more conveniently. This also applies to Skype after the Microsoft takeover.

It should not be hard for large Australian companies to operate a bunch of servers with Asterisk and FOSS-based E-mail services. To ask some other companies to run and host those services is worse than lazy; it is irresponsible and dangerous.

Those who live in Australia can hopefully speak to Telstra about this issue; if it is too late to revoke the decision, then it is time to speak with one’s wallet. █

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