14 DAY TRIAL // Everyone's anticipation of Windows Vista is rising more and more. Yet, the UK's government seems to be one of the more eagerly awaiting customer. Recently, they've been talking to Microsoft officials about the availability of a potential backdoor capability. The UK government fears that with Microsoft's new encryption method, it will make it much harder for police to read a suspect's computer files.
Cambridge academic Ross Anderson urged the government to look at establishing a backdoor in order to get around the encryption problem. Professor Anderson was giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee on the time one can hold terrorism suspects without charge. The issue came up when he addressed the future of encryption. "From later this year, the encryption landscape is going to change with the release of Microsoft Vista," Anderson said.
The reasons for his trepidations came from the fact that Vista uses BitLocker Drive Encryption through a chip called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in the computer's motherboard. They've upgraded security in order to limit pirated software from being made and distributed. It is also aimed against the potential cracking of Vista. "This means that by default your hard disk is encrypted by using a key that you cannot physically get at? An unfortunate side effect from law enforcement is it would be technically fairly seriously difficult to dig encrypted material out of the system if it has been set up competently."
A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office has already been in touch with Microsoft concerning this matter and is working closely with them." The Windows Vista Web site says the Bitlocker Drive Encryption "provides considerable off-line data and operating system protection for your computer? BitLocker ensures that data stored on a computer running Windows Vista is not revealed if the machine is tampered with when the installed operating system is offline."