Just as US imposed severe sanctions against 3 Russian banks, including VTB – the second-biggest bank in the country, Russia has come-up with a proposal that US based tech giants including Apple and SAP grant access to their source code so that it can ensure that Russians are not spied on.
Russian Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov met Apple’s General Manager and SAP’s Managing Director of their Russian offices to put across the proposal which has asked for access to the companies’ source codes.
His proposal also points out that Microsoft, a US company whose products are used widely, has been sharing its source codes for more than a decade for monitoring by a technology institution Atlas which reports to the Russian government.
Nikiforov said in a statement that it is certain that companies which are transparent about the source code, do not involve in any kind of spying activity, but those that do not want to give Russia the access to their source code “may have undeclared capabilities in their products.”
While source codes are the most guarded secrets of these companies, it remains uncertain as to how Apple and SAP would react to the demand. Apple has always maintained secrecy when it comes to the source code as its unique and proprietary features are what it is using to impact the market. Similarly, SAP has become the fourth biggest corporation in terms of revenue generation using its proprietary business planning software.
Giving access to their source codes might water down the significance of their proprietary software. Apple and SAP have declined to comment.
Notably, Russia isn’t the only nation asking companies to come clean, as Germany, China, Brazil, India and many other national governments are revising the technology practises in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance program. However, most of the nations have stopped short of asking the companies to disclose their source code.
I heard that this has been going on before Windows 95! If you are in the know, you know it, but the general public don’t. So, yes, there is definitely something there in the code, but it could be layers there so that one can conveniently claim a plausible deniability.