<font size="3">MS Windows source code escapes onto Internet</font>

Microsoft has suffered what appears to be a severe leak of Windows source code, with a file circulating on the Internet appearing to consist of several million lines of code from around mid-2000. The source code seems to relate to NT4 and Windows 2000, and in a statement the company has conceded that "portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet.

"It's illegal for third parties to post Microsoft source code," the statement continues somewhat redundantly, "and we take such activity very seriously."

The impact of the leak is however massively more important for Microsoft than it is for the rest of the world, as it effectively blows the company's 'security via obscurity' approach to smithereens. Over the past year or so it has, with much pomp and ceremony, unveiled its shared source programme as a counter to open source, while in the same period it has repeatedly stressed that it cannot disclose some aspects of its code to rivals for security reasons. If they could see it, it would leak, and then evil terrorists would be able to break into Windows more easily. Microsoft, incidentally, currently has the shared source web site as a 'related link' on the leak statement page. Are you entirely sure about this relationship, dahlinks?

Rest of Story: The Register