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Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

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Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#431

Post by achandlerwhite »

gzread wrote: post #295
SeanDav wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is worrying on many levels. So Microsoft force you to create an account to use Windows and then they reserve the right to block you from your own account, thereby potentially making you lose access to all your OWN data. This is crazy and yet another reason to stop using Windows as soon as possible.

Google and Apple have been doing this for a long time, and Microsoft clearly got jealous. Their first big win was when they banned the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from accessing any of the court's documents, then deleted all of those documents. Now they're going after slightly less important enemies of the state. That bar will continue to drop as long as it's allowed to. And let's not kid our…

yeah no. on my mac I don't need to sign in with an apple id.

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#432

Post by achandlerwhite »

trinsic2 wrote: post #351
electroly wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps not legally, but technically, you have an option: don't use the Microsoft Store. This isn't as wild a suggestion as it may seem to non-Windows users: the store is barely used by Windows users. You can get your own code signing certificate from a public CA, sign your own installer, and post it on your website. This is still the primary way that Windows software is distributed. Microsoft does not have a hand in…

Yep. OS level stores are just way for the org to exercise control over installs. I have stay far away from that process for a long time. Apple MacOS seems like the worst in that department IMHO.

what do you mean? mac doesn't require the use of the store at all, or even an apple id to use your computer

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#433

Post by rand846633 »

serf wrote: post #371
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> those who remain with Windows after this latest betrayal have chosen their fate. Ah. So almost every single business in the world… suckers?

are you making an argument that businesses worldwide somehow are known to make well thought-out, rational, wise decisions that are in best interest for the business and efficiency of running it? because most managers I know in my professional life go with the vendor that buys them dinner or slips them tickets for box seats.

Can you elaborate on how this corruption(?) looks in detail?

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#434

Post by walrus01 »

jerf wrote: post #167
SeanDav wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is worrying on many levels. So Microsoft force you to create an account to use Windows and then they reserve the right to block you from your own account, thereby potentially making you lose access to all your OWN data. This is crazy and yet another reason to stop using Windows as soon as possible.

I know it's not what people want to hear but my response to a lot of the comments here is just a general, I agree, it's time to stop using Windows. They won't let you secure your drive the way you want. They won't let you secure your network the way you want (per the top-level comment about Wireguard). In so doing they are demonstrating not just that they can stop you from running these particular programs but that t…

> I think it is becoming clear that Microsoft no longer considers Windows users to be their customers any more.

Quite obviously. Look at the out of box new user experience on a Windows 11 Home installation. What you get when you open a new $600 laptop from Best Buy for the first time. The entire thing is designed to drive users towards perpetual monthly recurring subscription billing for various MS services for life (OneDrive, Office, Xbox Live, Xbox game store purchased games, etc). It's a platform which is built atop a rent seeking cloud services ideology that shows no sign of ever letting up.

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#435

Post by SeanDav »

pocksuppet wrote: post #345
SeanDav wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has got very little to do with children - that is just the excuse that sounds good. "Think of the children" is a rhetorical tactic that anyone who wants to get unfettered access to your data rolls out whenever they can. It is a tactic that unreasonable people use to influence reasonable people, because it is so difficult for a reasonable person to argue against without coming across as uncaring and/or bigoted.

If it was an excuse to get your data there would be some data-getting involved. It may be hard for you to believe, but lots of people really do want parental controls that actually work and are bound by the force of law.

This is likely the first step, and in itself is not much of a concern but only if it stops there, which it almost certainly will not. The next step, where the government argue that simple attestation is not secure enough to protect the children, and now we need to show a government ID is when the true damage starts.

This is a little like the joke: "Madam, would you sleep with me for 1 million dollars?", to which she replies "I would". "Madam, would you sleep with me for 1 dollar?", to which she replies, "Sir, what sort of woman do you think I am?" To which he replies "We have already established what sort of woman you are, now we are just trying to establish your price!"

By agreeing to this initial Age Verification, companies are establishing that they are willing to implement checks on age for their users, now we will see just how much more they are willing to do - all to protect the children of course.

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#436

Post by trinsic2 »

achandlerwhite wrote: post #432
trinsic2 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. OS level stores are just way for the org to exercise control over installs. I have stay far away from that process for a long time. Apple MacOS seems like the worst in that department IMHO.

what do you mean? mac doesn't require the use of the store at all, or even an apple id to use your computer

It doesn't require it, and neither does windows store. It centralizes control over apps. Apple leverage's its OS to create friction for installing apps from the web.

Microsoft and Apple uses their OS store to slowing take away control and ownership from device owners.

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#437

Post by OkayPhysicist »

SeanDav wrote: post #67
akimbostrawman wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the current law requires no verification at all simple attestation, you could put in _any_ age. it also does not effect linux distros as a whole, only distros in jurisdictions with the laws.

Sure, for now... I simply don't believe it will stop at "simple attestation", because we all know that simple attestation is practically useless, but once the various distros accept this "trivial" inconvenience, "Age verification 2" with harsher requirements will soon be on the way. I would be ecstatic to be proved wrong on this, but experience tells me that is not likely to happen.

Literally the entire purpose of the law California passed, which Linux is responding to, is to preempt such laws: If someone says "we need identity verification because think of the kids looking at porn", it's now trivial to say "we already solved that problem, without deanonymizing everyone on the internet".

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#438

Post by BrenBarn »

ninjagoo wrote: post #241
zx2c4 wrote: post #39

This is the same problem I'm currently facing with WireGuard. No warning at all, no notification. One day I sign in to publish an update, and yikes, account suspended. Currently undergoing some sort of 60 days appeals process, but who knows. That's kind of crazy: what if there were some critical RCE in WireGuard, being exploited in the wild, and I needed to update users immediately? (That's just hypothetical; don't f…

It has been clear for a while that certain providers and services need to be regulated as utilities - Microsoft, Google, Apple, Visa, Mastercard, and soon Openai and Anthropic. It should be illegal for these companies, just like utilities, to deny service to anyone or any entity in good standing for dues. There is little hope for getting this through in the US where most politicians of any stripe hate the public, and…

They should probably be regulated as utilities and broken up into smaller companies, so that it's easier for people to migrate to alternatives when one company does something bad.

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#439

Post by rafaelgoncalves »

nslsm wrote: post #226
DHowett wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three lines of text in 12-point font in the corner which can be covered by a window is hardly “the entire screen.”

They changed it recently. https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/f8eac...

wow, didn't know about this, i developed some drivers and had this test mode enabled to debug some aspects of it, but now it is almost unusable with this on screen.

Re: Microsoft terminated the account VeraCrypt used to sign Windows drivers

#440

Post by [deleted] »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #14
nixpulvis wrote: post #12

We need a better way to sign and verify software. Clearly companies like Microsoft and Apple have not been good for the open source communities and are inhibiting innovation.

Just add code cert generation to letsencrypt, it's not like MS validates the code that you sign used certs from them anyway

[deleted]
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