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

windowscentral.com

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

#341

Post by blackcatsec »

ViktorRay wrote: post #230
blackcatsec wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was before Tim Cook presented Donald Trump with a gold and glass plaque along with a Mac Pro. We live in far different times these days. I have no doubt in my mind that Apple is complying 100% with every LE request coming their way (not only because of the above gesture, but because it's actually the law)

Apple’s lawyers were able to resist the Obama administration’s pressure. American presidents are not dictators. The system has checks and balances and the courts decide. It doesn’t matter who the president is.

You are conflating two different things, however.

There is a fundamental difference between the executive branch "requesting" information and the judicial branch issuing a warrant/subpoena. In the former, it is perfectly legal for Apple to say piss off. In the latter, it is absolutely not.

The US Government issues National Security Letters to every tech company operating in the United States, and it is legally mandated that companies comply with these subpoenas. So if Apple or Microsoft receive an NSL, the US Government is going to get your information. This includes anything you've uploaded to iCloud and anything in your Microsoft account/OneDrive/Bitlocker recovery keys/etc.

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

#342

Post by morshu9001 »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #274
morshu9001 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Authenticator used to be disconnected from reality like this. Users were asking how to copy the codes to another phone, and they said "you can't, WAI, should add the other phone as a second auth method on every site." Like how people say you shouldn't copy SSH privkeys. I figured out an undocumented way to do it on iPhone by taking an encrypted iTunes backup though. Eventually they yielded on this, but their l…

On the security versus convenience spectrum, allowing a user backup and taking an automatic corporate backup are far apart. Yes you should do the former. That doesn't say much about the latter.

Well they also had the whole backup vs no backup debate. Eventually they added backup to Google account, but it was confusing at times whether or not you actually had a backup.

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

#343

Post by morshu9001 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #285
Dylan16807 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the security versus convenience spectrum, allowing a user backup and taking an automatic corporate backup are far apart. Yes you should do the former. That doesn't say much about the latter.

Except nobody wants to allow users to make backups themselves. Or maybe I missed something, and there is actually a way to download your phone backup from Google, or PC backup from Microsoft, as actual files you can browse , without having to have a sacrificial device to wipe and restore from backup?

iPhone backups can be local at least. But the one time I used iCloud, I had to sacrifice a device just to load from backup.

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

#344

Post by lqstuart »

15155 wrote: post #269
lqstuart wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t like the behavior of a company voluntarily doing something, your problem is with that company. If you don’t like a company complying with the law, your problem is with the law. It is unreasonable to expect anyone or any company to break the law or violate a court order to protect you. If you don’t trust the institutions issuing those court orders, that is an entirely reasonable stance but it should be ad…

The ideal is that they have no ability to comply or not comply: they shouldn't have the keys to begin with.

The ideal is that Microsoft's customers are not idiots who will lose their keys. But that's just not reality, and those customers matter more than using what is arguably the objectively correct design in a certain light
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