MS Vista security concerns
p2p news / p2pnet: "An unfortunate side effect" of Vista security measures, aimed partly at stopping people from, "downloading unlicensed films or media" is – they’ll make it hard for enforcement agencies to hack suspects’ systems.
Windows Vista is theoretically due out this year and Cambridge academic Ross Anderson has urged the UK government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting around encryptions.
"Professor Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, was giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee about time limits on holding terrorism suspects without charge," says the BBC.
"He said: ‘From later this year, the encryption landscape is going to change with the release of Microsoft Vista.’ The system uses BitLocker Drive Encryption through a chip called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in the computer’s motherboard. It is partly aimed at preventing people from downloading unlicensed films or media."
And, "This means that by default your hard disk is encrypted by using a key that you cannot physically get at," the BBC has Anderson saying. "An unfortunate side effect from law enforcement is it would be technically fairly seriously difficult to dig encrypted material out of the system if it has been set up competently."
The Home Office should enter talks with Microsoft now rather than when the system is introduced, he said, but, "The Home Office has already been in touch with Microsoft concerning this matter and is working closely with them," a spokesman is quoted as saying.
Also See:
BBC – UK holds Microsoft security talks, February 15, 2006
February 15th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
This is by far the BEST thing I’ve heard about vista. It sounds like a nightmare, and will NEVER EVER be allowed into my home. EVER! Time to start brushing up the ol’ Linux skills…
February 15th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
so you have to ‘trust’ microsoft to not give away your key and beg them to get at your data?
February 15th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Not for me, than you very much. I have managed to run an uncompromised home computer for about 6 years now just by applying common sense, you know no kazaa, no xxx sites, etc. I want software to remain free and open, even if that means I’ll have to smugle a TCPless motherboard made in a country out of the reach of the evil corporations.
February 16th, 2006 at 12:56 am
There will be a way around this … There always is …. starforce?
February 16th, 2006 at 7:24 am
“And, this means that by default your hard disk is encrypted by using a key that you cannot physically get at,” the BBC has Anderson saying. “An unfortunate side effect from law enforcement is it would be technically fairly seriously difficult to dig encrypted material out of the system if it has been set up competently.”
Uh, one can do this right now without the benefit of Windows Vista. What’s the big deal?
February 16th, 2006 at 11:33 am
So as i understand this “feature” and i use the term loosely here, apparently Vista will encrypt your pc’s hard drives using the TPM chip on your mainboard to supply the key for decryption.
Ok, you have a mainboard with a TPM chip, and it either needs to be replaced or you just decide to replace it. Well that means you now have a new, different TPM chip. So it won’t be able to decrypt your hard drives. Say bye bye to all your data. Forever. Unless you have access to some serious decrypting facilities i guess. And if the police are whinging about it what chance does any Joe Average have of getting their data back? None i’d say.
Yay, yet another MS “Cool New Feature” that’s just a “Disaster Waiting to Happen”.
I can see ppl suing MS or mainboard makers or both over losing all their family photos, videos, etc etc etc etc etc. To say nothing of small businesses who may only have one pc. Oh yes, if you have everything backed up you might be ok. But who does that? Noone i know. Besides, if the backup is done using a drive physically connected to that pc, vista may encrypt all data being sent to the backup drive anyway, so you’d still be screwed, except you’d be utterly screwed.
I’m just hoping this is an optional feature that has to be turned on. Otherwise i’m gonna start pretending that i’ve forgotten everything i knew about computers so ppl don’t bother asking me to try and recover any data they’ve “lost” by changing mainboards. Cause i doubt it’ll be possible. At all.
February 17th, 2006 at 12:35 am
M$ windows isn’t free or open :/ . It’s close source software which means they can put any kind of crap in there they like, unlike open source software, which can be reviewed/revised by anyone.
If you want truely free and open software i suggest you take a look at linux.
February 19th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
“I’m just hoping this is an optional feature that has to be turned on. ”
probably, unless you want to listen to music or watch movies on your pc…. and of course eventually ms will turn it on anyway. After all once you’ve infected with Vistait’s no longer your computer, it’s m$’s tool to make more $ from you.