TPM combined with the recent revelations may become Windows' final nail in the coffin.
German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
21–30 of 125 posts
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#22This is about the TPM in windows 8. It's the same argument about treacherous computing that goes around, except the article seems to be suggesting people think it's a extent problem now because the TPM is always on, not a hypothetical in the future/ Microsoft's long term plan. Further, there is a nebulous assertion linking this to the NSA. 1) The TPM still can't control your computer(yet). It can only measure it's st…
> If Microsoft wanted to backdoor your system ... ... they already have Windows Update. It cannot be null-routed (respective entries in /etc/hosts are simply ignored), it is virtually always on and it can be trivially used to deliver custom patches to specific boxes. What more can you ask for?
What if you disable it? Doesn't it respect that setting?
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#23So because Windows 8 has support for trusted boot and friends that might (it's pure speculation) contain a backdoor, it's less secure than previous versions that did not support trusted boot at all? I agree that the NSA spying is a real threat, but so is traditional malware. The article is basically saying that, because the malware protection is not good enough (i.e. not securing against NSA malware), it's worse than…
> that might (it's pure speculation) contain a backdoor
Maybe, just maybe we have come to the point in time that unless a system has been shown to be secure, it should be assumed to be wiretaping the user. We can no longer assume secure until proven insecure.
> FUD.
Absolutely. This is what the reputational damage to american firms like Microsoft looks like. Why the hell should their systems be trusted now?
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#24So because Windows 8 has support for trusted boot and friends that might (it's pure speculation) contain a backdoor, it's less secure than previous versions that did not support trusted boot at all? I agree that the NSA spying is a real threat, but so is traditional malware. The article is basically saying that, because the malware protection is not good enough (i.e. not securing against NSA malware), it's worse than…
> that might (it's pure speculation) contain a backdoor Maybe, just maybe we have come to the point in time that unless a system has been shown to be secure, it should be assumed to be wiretaping the user. We can no longer assume secure until proven insecure. > FUD. Absolutely. This is what the reputational damage to american firms like Microsoft looks like. Why the hell should their systems be trusted now?
>Maybe, just maybe we have come to the point in time that unless a system has been shown to be secure, it should be assumed to be wiretaping the user. We can no longer assume secure until proven insecure.
I 100% agree. But I really fail to see how this makes Windows 8 a worse operating system in that regards than its predecessors. A system that provides no trusted computing support is equally easily hacked by the NSA as is a system that does support trusted computing. The latter does have the benefit of making hacking significantly more difficult for everybody but the NSA, so I would say it's still a net positive and not a huge negative which the article makes it out to be.
Security-wise only of course. I hate the idea of losing control over the hardware I purchased and I will resist as long as humanly possible installing a system that removes this kind of control from me. It just has _nothing_ to do with NSA spying and everything with corporate control of the OS maker.
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#25So because Windows 8 has support for trusted boot and friends that might (it's pure speculation) contain a backdoor, it's less secure than previous versions that did not support trusted boot at all? I agree that the NSA spying is a real threat, but so is traditional malware. The article is basically saying that, because the malware protection is not good enough (i.e. not securing against NSA malware), it's worse than…
The relation to the NSA is that whoever controls Microsoft also controls which programs can and cannot run on a Windows 8 computer. The assumption is that the NSA controls Microsoft. Is that really FUD? I'm not so sure.
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#262013, it's the post-snowden era. We don't have a cold war any more, but the level of spying is unbelievable. I am currently moving out my emails from GMail and installed PGP. At the moment I am using OSX since I do for years. But in the end the only "safe" way to protect your business and privacy is to use Linux/Unix. The FSF said it for years; the german CCC told us for years. I admit, I didn't believe it's so bad.…
What portion of people you communicate with email were you able to convince to use PGP with you?
My understanding is, that there isn't an email privacy, since at least they will have your metadata. In my limited understanding, secure communication is to be done using some secure chat service.
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#27This leads to a German article. Sorry I did not find any English article on this topic yet. So here the short summary (actually my translations of selected passages): [German] government experts warn, Windows 8 is an unacceptable security risk for governmental offices and companies. The so-called Trusted Computing might be a backdoor for NSA. [..] According to their [expert's] opinion the operating system contains a…
Being unable to read German I can't comment fully on the original article, but based on this summary this warning seems pretty silly. The operating system kernel always has full control over the system, how are they suggesting the TPM adds control here? The TPM is a small chip that handles certain crypto operations more securely (especially key management), how does this provide any additional backdoor scenarios? If…
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Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#28This leads to a German article. Sorry I did not find any English article on this topic yet. So here the short summary (actually my translations of selected passages): [German] government experts warn, Windows 8 is an unacceptable security risk for governmental offices and companies. The so-called Trusted Computing might be a backdoor for NSA. [..] According to their [expert's] opinion the operating system contains a…
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Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, I should have provided more details. I ment to say Prism program also taps in to user data of Apple. PRISM showed us the NSA has direct access to Apple servers. The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-...
Ah, I see. (I thought you were talking about something found in OS X, not Apple's PRISM involvement.) I'm not sure if I personally consider this a reason not to use OS X, but it is definitely a reason to not use iCloud.
Same for me. I don't use iCloud, but I still use OSX
Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk
#30If Microsoft has been complying with government requests to facilitate access to Microsoft online services, then it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to extrapolate from there to question whether or not Microsoft operating systems have also been engineered to facilitate government access.