Microsoft has informed the Australian Parliamentary Committee not to worry about their data being accessed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), assuring that its cloud services and software does not contain any back doors.
Microsoft’s latest denial comes after Senate Scott Ludlum asked the Australia’s Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) chief Information officer whether the US software major’s software comprises back doors allowing US to snoop on parliamentarians’ activities.
In response, DPS noted that Microsoft has advised that there is no back door in the Australian parliamentary IT system.
"There is a significant degree of speculation resulting from the Snowden revelations that a back door exists," the agency added.
"Based on the available material, the speculation appears to relate to back doors in cloud-related software products rather than internal environments.
"DPS has not been provided with any specific advice that Microsoft products or any other products have been ‘backdoored’ by foreign intelligence services.
"Microsoft has advised that they comply with all jurisdictional laws in relation to these matters.
However, DPS also notified that it does not store information related to its parliamentarians in the cloud and is working to prevent systems including the alleged Prism system from compromising ICT environment.
