### Click [here](https://ninjagambleyen.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/the-nsas-backdoor-in-microsoft-windows-we-knew-in-1999/) for source.
Internally at Microsoft, there was a careless mistake made by Microsoft’s software engineers in the second quarter of 1999. Windows NT4 was supplemented with its fifth service pack on the 4th of May 1999 without its debugging symbols stripped. Debugging symbols are used to test pre-release software. Inside the fifth service pack were labels for code referencing two cryptography keys named “KEY” and “NSAKEY”.
Computer security specialists were aware of the unusual features obscured within the standard Windows software driver, “ADVAPI.dll”. This driver is used for controlling a range of encryption functions within the security subsystem of Windows, present in every release of Windows from Windows 95 B OSR2 onward.
The two keys were discovered by Nicko van Someren during advanced search and entropy testing of Microsoft programming code. The first key in ADVAPI.DLL labelled “KEY” is used for signing hardware driver signatures, encrypting email and Internet Explorer security. The functions of the second key labelled “NSAKEY” remained a mystery and these findings were presented at Crypto 98 Conference. Soon after, chief scientist of Cryptonym Corporation; Dr Andrew Fernandez discovered the origins of “NSAKEY” and presented his findings at Crypto 99 Conference.
“NSAKEY” compromises the Windows security subsystem by granting the NSA total access to the encryption system of Windows. This makes the NSA’s access to a person’s entire operating system tremendously easier. Informed sources have noted the National Security Agency and federal law enforcement insist on essential backdoor “keys” to any encryption under the United States of America export laws.
Windows developers at the conference didn’t deny the existence of “NSAKEY”. The entire debacle was too soon after the revelations that software giant Lotus had been caught helping the NSA deliberately crippling the security functions in their Lotus Notes software. This was done using a backdoor to subvert the security subsystem in Lotus Notes. The Windows developers who attended the Crypto 99 Conference did refuse to comment on “NSAKEY” however.
