alt Hacker NewsMicrosoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops
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It's interesting how many comments these days are like, "well of course".
Back in the day hackernews had some fire and resistance.
Too many tech workers decided to rollover for the government and that's why we are in this mess now.
This isn't an argument about law, it's about designing secure systems. And lazy engineers build lazy key escrow the government can exploit.
Hear that? It's the sound of the year of the Linux desktop.
It's time - it's never been easier, and there's nothing you'll miss about Windows.
> Microsoft told Forbes that the company sometimes provides BitLocker recovery keys to authorities, having received an average of 20 such requests per year.
At least they are honest about it, but a good reason to switch over to linux. Particularly if you travel.
If microsoft is giving these keys out to the US government, they are almost certainly giving them to all other governments that request them.
Here's a story about what the FBI may do when they don't unlock the laptop:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/fbi-cant-be-blamed-for-wiping...
Perhaps next time, an agent will copy the data, wipe the drive, and say they couldn't decrypt it. 10 years ago agents were charged for diverting a suspect's Bitcoin, I feel like the current leadership will demand a cut.
I don't know how many bad things Microsoft has to do before consumers realize they are a terrible company and you should stop buying their stuff.
The Zionist cloud is not secure.
This is almost certainly users who elect to store their BitLocker keys in OneDrive.
Don't think Apple wouldn't do the same.
If you don't want other people to have access to your keys, don't give your keys to other people.
The problems of centralization. Some economic sectors are centralized by nature, IT is not.
This is by far one of the best advertisements for LUKS/VeraCrypt I've ever seen.
Not your keys not your {thing}
So, forcing user to connect to Internet and log in to Microsoft account has more to do than tracking you and selling ads -- Microsoft may be intentionally helping law enforcement unlocking your computer -- and that's not a conspiracy.
This is why local account setup is so important on windows, and why microsoft makes it harder and harder each update.
[dupe] Discussion on source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46731694
This is disappointing but I wonder if this is quid pro quo. Microsoft and Nadella want to appear to be cooperating with the government, so they are given more government contracts and so they don’t get regulatory problems (like on antitrust or whatever).
> The case involved several people suspected of fraud related to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program
If it were preventing a mass murder I might feel differently...
But this is protecting the money supply (and indirectly the governments control).
Not a reason to violate privacy IMO, especially when at the time this was done these people were only suspected of fraud, not convicted.
FYI BitLocker is on by default in Windows 11. The defaults will also upload the BitLocker key to a Microsoft Account if available.
This is why the FBI can compel Microsoft to provide the keys. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that the suspect didn't even know they had an encrypted laptop. Journalists love the "Microsoft gave" framing because it makes Microsoft sound like they're handing these out because they like the cops, but that's not how it works. If your company has data that the police want and they can get a warrant, you have no choice but to give it to them.
This makes the privacy purists angry, but in my opinion it's the reasonable default for the average computer user. It protects their data in the event that someone steals the laptop, but still allows them to recover their own data later from the hard drive.
Any power users who prefer their own key management should follow the steps to enable Bitlocker without uploading keys to a connected Microsoft account.