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Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

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Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#181

Post by matheusmoreira »

direwolf20 wrote: post #153
Aurornis wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Back in the day hackernews had some fire and resistance. Most of the comments are fire and resistance, but they commonly take ragebait and run with the assumptions built-in to clickbait headlines. > Too many tech workers decided to rollover for the government and that's why we are in this mess now. I take it you've never worked at a company when law enforcement comes knocking for data? The internet tough guy fantas…

"Good" companies in the old days would ensure they don't have your data, so they don't have to give it to the police.

Plenty of companies would do that if they could. The problem is it has become illegal for them to do that now. KYC/AML laws form the financial arm of warrantless global mass surveillance.

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#183

Post by SilverElfin »

Aurornis wrote: post #5

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 lik…

Doesn’t windows 11 force you to use a Microsoft account

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#184

Post by diego_moita »

This isn't even about Microsoft or BitLocker. This is about the U.S.A.: anyone who thrusts the rule of law in the U.S. is a fool.

Yes, the American government retrieves these keys "legally". But so what? The American courts won't protect foreigners, even if they are heads of state or dictators. The American government routinely frees criminals (the ones that donate to Republicans) and persecutes lawful citizens (the ones that cause trouble to Republicans). The "rule of law" in the U.S. is a farce.

And this is not just about the U.S. Under the "five eyes" agreement, the governments of Canada, UK, Autralia and New Zealand could also grab your secrets.

Never trust the United States. We live in dangerous times. Ignore it at your own risk.

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#185

Post by modeless »

thewebguyd wrote: post #129
Aurornis wrote: post #5

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 lik…

> Any power users who prefer their own key management should follow the steps to enable Bitlocker without uploading keys to a connected Microsoft account. Except the steps to to that are disable bitlocker, create a local user account (assuming you initially signed in with a Microsoft account because Ms now forces it on you for home editions of windows), delete your existing keys from OneDrive, then re-encrypt using y…

They don't do that for iMessage though... https://james.darpinian.com/blog/apple-imessage-encryption

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#186

Post by direwolf20 »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #181
direwolf20 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Good" companies in the old days would ensure they don't have your data, so they don't have to give it to the police.

Plenty of companies would do that if they could. The problem is it has become illegal for them to do that now. KYC/AML laws form the financial arm of warrantless global mass surveillance.

KYC/AML is luckily still confined to the financial sector. There's no law for operating system vendors to do KYC/AML.

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#187

Post by amitav1 »

SmellTheGlove wrote: post #169
matheusmoreira wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power users should stop bothering with Windows nonsense and install Linux instead so that they can actually have control over their system. It's 2026. The abuses of corporations are well documented. Anyone who still chooses Windows of their own volition is quite literally asking for it and they deserve everything that happens to them.

I’ll bite. What Linux distro currently has the nicest desktop experience? I work on a MacBook but my desktop is a windows PC that I use for gaming and personal projects. I hear Proton has made the former pretty good now, and the latter is mostly in WSL for me anyway. Maybe a good time to try. What do you suggest? I’ll try it in a VM or live usb.

Something with KDE. Never used KDE extensively because I hate non-tiling WMs, but something like Kubuntu would give you a more windows-esque experience by default. Here's the download link:

https://kubuntu.org/download/

Bon appetit!

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#188

Post by qmr »

SoftTalker wrote: post #127
Aurornis wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If users are so paranoid that they worry about a cosmic ray bit flipping their computer into betraying them, they're probably not using a Microsoft account at all with their Windows PC.

If your security requirements are such that you need to worry about legally-issued search warrants, you should not connect your computer to the internet. Especially if it's running Windows.

Appeal to the law fallacy.

Re: Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops

#189

Post by dgrunwald »

thewebguyd wrote: post #129
Aurornis wrote: post #5

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 lik…

> Any power users who prefer their own key management should follow the steps to enable Bitlocker without uploading keys to a connected Microsoft account. Except the steps to to that are disable bitlocker, create a local user account (assuming you initially signed in with a Microsoft account because Ms now forces it on you for home editions of windows), delete your existing keys from OneDrive, then re-encrypt using y…

> make sure not to sign into your Microsoft account or link it to Windows again

That's not so easy. Microsoft tries really hard to get you to use a Microsoft account. For example, logging into MS Teams will automatically link your local account with the Microsoft account, thus starting the automatic upload of all kinds of stuff unrelated to MS Teams.

In the past I also had Edge importing Firefox data (including stored passwords) without me agreeing to do so, and then uploading those into the Cloud.

Nowadays you just need to assume that all data on Windows computers is available to Microsoft; even if you temporarily find a way to keep your data out of their hands, an update will certainly change that.

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