Microsoft will give the FBI a Windows PC data encryption key if ordered

Post by quotemstr » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:53 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #140

The headline is misleading. It says that Microsoft will provide the key if asked , but the linked statement to Forbes says Microsoft will provide the key if it receives a valid legal order . These have different meanings. Microsoft is legally entitled to refuse a request from law enforcement, and subject to criminal penalties if it refuses a valid legal order. It does illustrate a significant vulnerability in that Mi…

Post by kelnos » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:57 PM UTC

aprentic wrote: post #190

xp84 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tradeoff between security and convenience they'd certainly have far fewer customers What? Most people, thinking through the tradeoff, would 100% not choose to be in charge of safeguarding their own key, because they're more worried about losing everything on their PC, than they are about going to jail. Because most people aren't planning on doing crime. Yes, I know people can be wrongly accused and stuff, but overa…

That's exactly what I mean. If you tell people, "I'll take care of safeguarding your key for you," it sounds like you're just doing them a favor. It would be more honest to say, "I can hold on to a copy of your key and automatically unlock your data when we think you need it opened," but that would make it too obvious that they might do so without your permission.

Post by bigyabai » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:59 PM UTC

bdavbdav wrote: post #89

sandworm101 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://linuxmint.com/ https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop https://archlinux.org/ https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-platforms https://fedoraproject.org/ Every bad day for microsoft is yet another glorious day for linux.

And MacOS, which I suspect may be the more obvious choice for many users.

Post by bigyabai » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 7:05 PM UTC

andrewksl wrote: post #137

cromka wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but these are all mere statements. You don't know if they fully back that until there's a public standoff with law enforcement/administration and there weren't any in recent years. Yet at the same time it's hard to believe there were no attempts from that government to decrypt some devices they needed. So the fact we hear nothing about it is also an information to me. Sure, this is all speculation, but all thin…

They fully comply with Chinese requirements if you subscribe to iCloud in China, and they do this quite transparently. They do not, notably, say they don't share anything with China and then go ahead and do it anyway. Unless Apple is straight up lying about their technology and encryption methods used to secure iCloud and their hardware, the issue of a public standoff is moot, because Apple couldn't help them if they…

  Apple has since confirmed in a statement provided to Ars that the US federal government “prohibited” the company “from sharing any information,” but now that Wyden has outed the feds, Apple has updated its transparency reporting and will “detail these kinds of requests” in a separate section on push notifications in its next report.

Post by bitwize » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #140

The headline is misleading. It says that Microsoft will provide the key if asked , but the linked statement to Forbes says Microsoft will provide the key if it receives a valid legal order . These have different meanings. Microsoft is legally entitled to refuse a request from law enforcement, and subject to criminal penalties if it refuses a valid legal order. It does illustrate a significant vulnerability in that Mi…