"How Microsoft Vista Helps Terrorists"

[jedisponge]

I'm someone who's interested in politics, as I'm sure many are. I'm majoring in history and international relations in college, and I like to see myself as more in tune with the events are going on. That being said, I also love computers, tweaking them and whatnot.

Now I hope this thread doesn't turn into a political bickerfest, but I just want it stated that I'm very patriotic, like Vista and have an open mind. On to the article: Strategypage is a military and international relation newsitem website. In my opinion, it has a decidely hawk-ish pull to it, but that doesn't detract from quite a few well rounded and thought out articles. However, this one I found funny.

The main point is...

For that reason, military and government users were glad to see Microsoft include strong data encryption (BitLocker) in the latest version (Vista) of its operating system. The bad news, at least for intelligence personnel, is that the bad guys will have convenient access to this easy-to-use encryption technology.

and:

While laptop losses cannot be completely eliminated, the degree of damage can be greatly reduced. But new technologies like BitLocker also make life harder for intelligence services everywhere.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20070215.aspx

Anyway, these two quotes can somewhat be taken out of context, as the article itself isn't slamming Vista hard. It's just that I find it inane that in this day an age a rational person can come out and say "How Microsoft Vista Helps Terrorists" with BitLocker.

Here's too hoping I didn't post this article in the wrong section, and not the Political Rants section.

 

[Nothinman]

That's retarded, full drive encryption has been available for other OSes for years and even so things like PGPDisk and TrueCrypt are usually more than good enough.

The only thing I can see that BitLocker brings to the table is decryption that requires a seperate device (USB key and TPM chip) instead of just a password/cert like EFS and the fact that it hides file/directory names too. With EFS the data's encrypted but the names are still accessible.

 

[jkresh]

BitLocker does make encryption a bit more available for the average user, but as Nothinman said if you wanted to encrypt your drives you could do it before (and I am sure that criminals have been using encryption for years).

 

[Nothinman]

BitLocker does make encryption a bit more available for the average user,

Not really, it only comes with Ultimate IIRC and have you seen the instructions for setting it up?

 

[miniMUNCH]

Dude... I am getting really pissed with all the slanted press Vista is getting.

I mean...honestly, MS overhyped Vista something serious and they should eat a little crow for it. I honestly hate and disagree with how MS handles press relations and marketing, in general...

But, come on! Just evaluate the OS as is it against what it supposed to replace (XP) and against OS X and linux, if you must.

But this whole "bit-locker is helping terrorist" sh1t honestly disgusts me. Politicians, lawyers, and journalists (not really)... ugh.

I was an early XP adopter and Vista 64 is way, way better than XP was in 01 and, so far, aside from a few short lived driver glitches, is on par or better than XP. Vista is late to game in many aspects wrt OS X and pales technically to linux in some areas...but it does not deserve the bad press and reception it is getting...IMO anyway.

 

[Nothinman]

But this whole "bit-locker is helping terrorist" sh1t honestly disgusts me. Politicians, lawyers, and journalists (not really)... ugh.

They must be throwbacks from the days when the encryption export restrictions were still active, actually I don't really know what's active and what's been lifted. The most frustrating thing is that you'll never be able to convince these people otherwise, just like the ones that claim that if guns were illegal there'd be less crime and killing as if all of the criminals would just "Oh crap, guess I can't use this anymore!".

 

[drag]

It's been lifted for open source stuff definately. That was a specific exception.

But commercial closed-source software may still have restrictions. I would expect that if Windows is able to ship with bitlocker then it's going to be pretty loose restrictions compared to what it used to be.

I would expect that the NSA beleives it's sufficiently advanced that they don't need to worry about that sort of thing.

Also it's pretty likely that these sorts of things are going to render all current forms of encryption obsolete witing a decade or two. (yes, even AACS )

 

[Sunner]

Didn't Linux aid terrorists a while ago as well?

 

[drag]

Nope.

Linux is ALL AMERICAN.

Remember Piracy Funds Terrorism. You can't pirate what you can get for free. People pirate Windows all the time.

Instead Linux has decided to help track them down. Go G.I.Linux!

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: drag
Nope.

Linux is ALL AMERICAN.

Remember Piracy Funds Terrorism. You can't pirate what you can get for free. People pirate Windows all the time.

Instead Linux has decided to help track them down. Go G.I.Linux!

Ah right, it was piracy.
My bad, I'm apparently not keeping up with the Terrorist Threat of the Month.

 

[oldman420]

Originally posted by: drag
It's been lifted for open source stuff definately. That was a specific exception.

But commercial closed-source software may still have restrictions. I would expect that if Windows is able to ship with bitlocker then it's going to be pretty loose restrictions compared to what it used to be.

I would expect that the NSA beleives it's sufficiently advanced that they don't need to worry about that sort of thing.

Also it's pretty likely that these sorts of things are going to render all current forms of encryption obsolete witing a decade or two. (yes, even AACS )

what is that thing?

 

[Tencntraze]

Looks like the quantum computer, perhaps?

 

[stash]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

BitLocker does make encryption a bit more available for the average user,

Not really, it only comes with Ultimate IIRC and have you seen the instructions for setting it up?

It's actually really simple to set up. Most of the instructions were for partitioning the disk, but a tool was released as an Ultimate Extra that will do it for you. You could literally setup BitLocker with a couple clicks and a reboot.

 

[Nothinman]

It's actually really simple to set up. Most of the instructions were for partitioning the disk, but a tool was released as an Ultimate Extra that will do it for you. You could literally setup BitLocker with a couple clicks and a reboot.

But why wasn't that tool included with Ultimate originally and even better, why wasn't it integrated with the installer?

 

[stash]

So it could be provided as an Ultimate Extra as an incentive to purchase Ultimate, I would guess.

Not saying I agree with that, since I think there will be more BitLocker users with Enterprise, and the tool doesn't work with Enterprise. But that's probably the main reason.

 

[Mucker]

funny how people still think terrorists are just like the "shoe bomber guy". Fact is there are some very sharp cookies inside those groups that know how to use technology very, very well, those are the scariest fvckers to deal with....much like the uni-bomber....

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: oldman420

Originally posted by: drag
Also it's pretty likely that these sorts of things are going to render all current forms of encryption obsolete witing a decade or two. (yes, even AACS )

what is that thing?

Ditto. Looks like something they used on Cartman in the Southpark episode about an @nal probe.

 

[Nothinman]

So it could be provided as an Ultimate Extra as an incentive to purchase Ultimate, I would guess.

Still would have made more sense to include it in the installer, but I guess their "all versions on one disc" idea makes that a lot more complicated.

 

[tehtank]

Originally posted by: oldman420

Originally posted by: drag
It's been lifted for open source stuff definately. That was a specific exception.

But commercial closed-source software may still have restrictions. I would expect that if Windows is able to ship with bitlocker then it's going to be pretty loose restrictions compared to what it used to be.

I would expect that the NSA beleives it's sufficiently advanced that they don't need to worry about that sort of thing.

Also it's pretty likely that these sorts of things are going to render all current forms of encryption obsolete witing a decade or two. (yes, even AACS )

what is that thing?

One hell of a c2d heatsink!

 

[cessation]

Don't worry guys, I talked to Steve the other day and he told me MS made a master password for bitlocker.

 

[russell2002]

I heard the password was billgates.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: tehtank

Originally posted by: oldman420

Originally posted by: drag
It's been lifted for open source stuff definately. That was a specific exception.

But commercial closed-source software may still have restrictions. I would expect that if Windows is able to ship with bitlocker then it's going to be pretty loose restrictions compared to what it used to be.

I would expect that the NSA beleives it's sufficiently advanced that they don't need to worry about that sort of thing.

Also it's pretty likely that these sorts of things are going to render all current forms of encryption obsolete witing a decade or two. (yes, even AACS )

what is that thing?

One hell of a c2d heatsink!

Yep.
http://www.leidencryogenics.com/index.asp
It's a fridge heatsink that cools the cpu down to 0.005 degrees above Kalvin.
That's -273.145C or -459.661F
That's the colder then anywere in the known universe (outside other labs). 500 times colder then the coldest parts of intersteller space.

The chip at the bottom is a proccessor that is made out of superconductures and depends on the movement of individual atoms to create a 16 Qubit quantum cpu. It then connects through to a conviential computer.

With a convientonal CPU you have a bit that equals 0 or 1. With a Qubit you have a bit that equals 0 or 1 or both.