Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

201–210 of 694 posts

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

#201
post #81
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always count on someone coming along and defending the multi-trillion dollar corporation that just so happens to take a screenshot of your screen every few seconds (among many, many - too many other things)

AI enshittification is irrelevant here. Why is someone pointing out that sensible secure defaults are a good thing suddenly defending the entire company?

Uploading your encryption keys up to someone else's machine is not a sensible default

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

#202
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…

There needs to be more awareness into setting up W11 install ISO's which can be modified to disable bitlocker by default, disable the online account requirement.

I recently needed to make a bootable key and found that Rufus out of the box allows you to modify the installer, game changer.

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

#203
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…

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't forcing you to divulge your encryption password compelled speech? So the police can crack my phone but they can't force me to tell them my PIN.

In theory...

In practice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_re_Boucher

The government gets what the government wants.

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

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't forcing you to divulge your encryption password compelled speech? So the police can crack my phone but they can't force me to tell them my PIN.

They can't force you to tell them your PIN in some countries, but they can try all PINs, and they can search your desk drawer to find the post-it where you wrote your PIN.

Good PINs are ones you're not allowed to brute force. You can easily configure an iPhone to wipe itself after too many wrong guesses. There's a single checkbox labeled "Erase Data", saying "Erase all data on this iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts."

You bet I have that enabled.

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

#205
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…

Why would you need to create a local account? You can just not choose to store the keys in your Microsoft account during BitLocker setup: https://www.diskpart.com/screenshot/en/others/windows-11/win...

Admittedly, the risks of choosing this option are not clearly laid out, but the way you are framing it also isn't accurate

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

#206

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.

> Too many tech workers decided to rollover for the government and that's why we are in this mess now.

It has nothing to do with the state and has to do with getting the RSUs to pay the down payment for a house in a HCOL area in order to maybe have children before 40 and make the KPIs so you don't get stack-ranked into the bottom 30% and fired at big tech, or grinding 996 to make your investors richest and you rich-ish in the process if you're unlikely enough to exit in the upper decile with your idea. This doesn't include the contingent of people who fundamentally believe in the state, too.

Most people are activists only to the point of where it begins to impede on their comfort.

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

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no law yet.

Where I live, government passed a similar law to the UK's online identification law not too long ago. It creates obligations for operating system vendors to provide secure identity verification mechanisms. Can't just ask the user if they're over 18 and believe the answer.

The goal is of course to censor social media platforms by "regulating" them under the guise of protecting children. In practice the law is meant for and will probably impact the mobile platforms, but if interpreted literally it essentially makes free computers illegal. The implication is that only corporation owned computers will be allowed to participate in computer networks because only they are "secure enough". People with their own Linux systems need not apply because if you own your machine you can easily bypass these idiotic verifications.

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

#208
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.

I have W11 w a local account and no bitlocker on my desktop computer, but the sheer amount of nonsense MS has been doing these days has really made me question if 'easy modding*' is really enough of a benefit for me to not just nuke it and install linux yet again

* You can get the MO2 mod manager running under linux, but it's a pain, much like you can also supposedly run executable mods (downgraders, engine patches, etc) in the game's context, but again, pain

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

#209
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…

The reasonable default is transparency about it and 2FA for recovery scenarios. MS does not have to have the keys in the clear, as it is reasonable for any secrets you store.

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

#210
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…

If you are super concerned about their privacy, should you be using Windows anyway? Or any commercial OS for that matter?
Post reply on HN