Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

zeit.de

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 125 posts

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#91

Post by mpyne »

moocowduckquack wrote: post #66
amanne wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how Windows 8 is singled out as if other Windows versions are any better. Windows 7 can be securely used till 2020? That's the cut off date for updates from MS. The same MS that the article says " For the user there is simply no way to tell what exactly Microsoft does to their system through remote updates." The above is true of Apple and Google, but it is glossed over. First, I fail to see any relevance o…

"First, I fail to see any relevance or technical info about how TPM or trusted boot to the issue at hand." Is that a sentence? It sort of looks like a sentence, but something seems missing.

I'm assuming you're not a computer, have you tried using context clues to figure out what the author might have meant? This isn't Reddit, we don't need grammar Nazis or joke threads here.

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#92

Post by mpyne »

mjg59 wrote: post #80

TPMs can't be used to control which software you can install. All they can do is prove what software you're running, which means that a remote provider can choose whether or not to provide a service based on what you're running. Trusted Boot is about providing proof, not about enforcing local policies. Secure Boot can be used to restrict which software you can install, as demonstrated in Windows RT. But that has noth…

For all of you who (somehow) don't recognize the UID here, this isn't just some "interested observer", this is the person implementing support for booting Linux on systems with these TPMs. In fact if I understand it right Linux can now optionally use a TPM to verify that kernel modules are only loaded if cryptographically signed.

A good intro to TPM on Linux: http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/24818.html

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#93

Post by bad_user »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #59
bad_user wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you can only install software approved by Microsoft, you cannot install software on it for detecting a backdoor installed by Microsoft. These computers are only more secure if you trust Microsoft. If Microsoft can't be trusted (and they can't be, as they are under NSA's jurisdiction), then the Windows 8 computers are less secure. But wait, it gets worse. At least in the case of MacBooks you only have to trust…

Um, wait-Windows 8 will allow you to install any old x86 Windows program. Only Windows RT is locked down to such an extent. I hope HN doesn't have Slashdot levels of ignorance concerning Windows.

Before jumping to conclusions, take your time and read about how rootkits work and why it is hard to detect rootkits. Also I love it when new users give warnings about HN's evolution.

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#94

Post by acqq »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #64
acqq wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Windows 8 notebook and for the first time in my life I have no control over my own general purpose computer: - I can't enter BIOS before entering OS. - Once I enter the BIOS from the OS I can't activate the hard disk password. - I can't install the Windows 8 OS clean. The MSFT has the deal with the computer producers that doesn't allow them to deliver the pure OS medium, you can only backup the already prese…

My roommate bought a Windows 8 equipped Asus a few months back and installed Mint on it. Seriously, Google 'How to install Linux on a Windows 8 laptop' sometime.

My point is still: new made-for-Windows 8 computers (especially notebooks) are bigger security risk than older Windows 7 computers. Installing Linux on the Windows 8 hardware can help if you avoid some issues, still even then there has to be independent evaluation of the modern BIOSes, appearing more and more in Windows 8 computers, that know how to connect or answer to the Internet and that provide the level of execution which user can't observe.

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#95

Post by Altair909 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #68
ihsw wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't have a cold war any more We absolutely have a cold war, except, rather than a continuously increasing stockpile of nuclear weapons, we have a continuously increasing stockpile of zero-day exploits. Another hallmark of the cold war is escalation and regional hegemony, and consider that draconian spying legislation is disseminating from the USA to her vassal states -- Canada, UK, Australia, NZ. Similar techn…

> The USA has a very serious rivalry with China, and vice versa. Can you say more about this? Are we afraid of them doing something to us? What? Are they afraid of us doing something to them? What?

My wife is Chinese and I do a lot of work related to US and China relations. Basically from what I know, China wants to be the best, jealously is very, very strong within the Chinese, if you are not number 1 then you are last. The CCP will do all it can to be number 1. For 50 years they have systematically provided the US with opportunities, enhanced our economy (on the surface), and done so much more. However, as the US is now seeing, it was all done for China and not for the US. Now the US has placed its self in China hands. We have become so dependent on China that the US has backed its self into a corner and has no clue how to get out. So China now is cracking its iron knuckles seeing how far it take advantage of the situation.

If the US speaks out, China pulls the plug on our Economy. If the US spies on them via technology, China uses its mass 25,000 military hackers to wreak havoc in cyber-security. With the debt we owe China, they keep waving it in our face, the US is helpless.

On the plus side, the Chinese people also are loosing faith in the party and have moved their money over seas, soon China's economy bubble will burst and the most of the US will be saved. New jobs will open, our debt to China will end, and all will be well. For those who make all their business importing from China, they will be the ones you will see on the streets if they don't stop and see the signs.

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#96

Post by sirkneeland »

petera wrote: post #36
greyman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For most contacts you just move away from people who don't use secure communication and may compromise you in the future, no need to convince someone. Works for me.

"For most contacts you just move away from people who don't use secure communication"

people aren't JS libraries, you can't/don't "just move away from them"

"Hi Mom, I just want you to know: I am deprecating our relationship to "acquaintance" because you use Gmail and an iPad"

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#97

Post by bpyne »

mpyne wrote: post #91
moocowduckquack wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"First, I fail to see any relevance or technical info about how TPM or trusted boot to the issue at hand." Is that a sentence? It sort of looks like a sentence, but something seems missing.

I'm assuming you're not a computer, have you tried using context clues to figure out what the author might have meant? This isn't Reddit, we don't need grammar Nazis or joke threads here.

The sentence looks like the author started a thought but didn't finish it. I doubt moocowduckquack was taking a cheap shot at the grammar so much as wondering if the author didn't finish the thought.

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#98

Post by bangboppok »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #70
progman wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is even worse. The attempt to escape into OSS/Linux is a step in the right direction. But as long as we are dependent on mass consumer hardware then there is always a risk of being spied through hardware backdoors. In this case it doesn't matter which software we use. Even encryption is useless. It is NOT enough to avoid Windows 8 because the real problem is modern hardware that uses Trusted Computing chips. Trust…

> TC could also be used to delete evidence from computers of journalists who would have no power to keep it. Since Amazon deleted all those copies of 1984 from everyone's Kindles, I don't keep mine connected to the internet. If you have data, you can keep it. Keep it on your own devices.

> Since Amazon deleted all those copies of 1984 from everyone's Kindles

What? When? Seriously?

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#99

Post by T-hawk »

Spearchucker wrote: post #50
grobmeier wrote: post #12

2013, 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.…

I have no intention of moving away from Windows 8. I do, however, have a laptop that never connects to a network. Ever. It's where I keep things I consider private. Data transfer, minimal as it is, is done using swivel-chair integration. Everything else (i.e. all my remaining devices and apps on those devices) are treated like any PC in an Internet café - untrusted and compromised.

How do you back up the private data on that laptop?

Re: German government warns Windows 8 is a security risk

#100

Post by MichaelGG »

mjg59 wrote: post #80

TPMs can't be used to control which software you can install. All they can do is prove what software you're running, which means that a remote provider can choose whether or not to provide a service based on what you're running. Trusted Boot is about providing proof, not about enforcing local policies. Secure Boot can be used to restrict which software you can install, as demonstrated in Windows RT. But that has noth…

TPMs are also pretty handy for low-level corporate security. Setup disk encryption, store in the TPM then either boot directly (allowing RAM attacks) or require a PIN (requiring someone to break the TPM itself). That's a pretty nifty feature for general security.

I think the distrust and confusion around TPMs and so on is due to Microsoft's moronic handling of Vista's protected playback system and people have extrapolated from there.

Post reply on HN