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E-Mail Controls in Office 2003
TiggsPanther writes "The BBC's Technology News reports than the next version of MS Office will include E-Mail controls which should limit way that e-mail messages can be forwarded.
Being tied into the Information Rights Management concept, it might be interesting to see how quickly this gets taken up."
the washington post (via msnbc) says dont bother with Office 2003 at all
http://www.msnbc.com/news/982713.asp?0dm=T15NT
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We just received our Office 2003 discs yesterday. I installed Outlook 2003 because the vertical-side-panel-snap-together-do-hicky is pretty sweet. .NET Passport. .NET Passport is active.
If you use the e-mail DRM service(straight from the dialog box):
- You need a
- Your documents won't be sent to or stored by Microsoft.
- If Microsoft decides to end the trial, you can access the restricted documents and e-mail for at least three months, as long your
- Microsoft won't decrypt contect protected by the service unless a court order requires it.
I read something about being able to use DRM within an organization, but that it required running some sort of IRM server. Don't know anything else beyond that though.
Actually they thought of that. Cut/paste/print screen are disabled. Of course you can take a digital camera to it or write your own screen capture app but the intent is to prevent casual forwarding.
will be interesting to see how this works with non-MS email clients, esp on non-MS O/S's
As the article stated, "Microsoft says a free viewing program will be available for those who receive a protected document but are not using Office 2003."
However, since this is squarely targeted at corporate enviornments, I don't forsee this becoming a large problem.
Sure, it's bad for the end user information wants to be free blah blah blah, but companies want more control over where their information is going, and MS is providing it in this product. Don't want the FY04 budget leaked? Put a do-not-forward flag on it... Sure, you'll be able to screen-cap things, but casual copying will be prevented.
(We all know that protection can be circumvented by anyone with enough will... This is simply raising the bar for how much desire is necessary.)
That being said, I won't use it, but I'm sure there are corporations out there that will.
Since at least version 4 (maybe version 3.0) of Lotus Notes, you could prevent copying, printing and forwarding of a message. Under the delivery options when you're composing a new message, there is an option "Prevent Copying".
With notes, you could still grab a screen shot by pressing "Print Scrn", since that's tied into the OS, not the app.
everyone should be allowed to have secrets. even companies should be allowed to have secrets. secrets like how to manufacture product X, or get Y working, or how to solve problem Z that nobody else can. it's being able to keep secrets like that that makes the economy work, because i know i can make scads of cash if i hit on the right secret to keep, so i'll stay up at night to figure it out.
the DRM/IRM bullshit won't protect that in the least, because, yes, you can paraphrase a secret like the one above. important secrets are things people have to know within the company to do their jobs. the only way to keep those kinds of secrets is to (gasp) treat your employees well enough that they feel like they have a stake in your company. god freaking forbid.
no, this program won't keep those secrets. what it will keep secret is the incriminating evidence -- the smoking gun e-mail where the tobacco exec says "addict kids" or the ms exec says "spread fud on open source." the only secrets this program will keep are the secrets we pay journalists to uncover for the public good -- the secrets that expose the lies that companies present to the public.
THOSE secrets require the e-mails to be quoted, because the point is not the information -- it's the source, and the way it's said. thanks, microsoft, for helping to make the world a little more like your own house.
Ok, this thread is full of people assuming MS are dumb. Monopolists they may be but dumb they're not.
1. IRM allows you to block forwarding of a message.
2. IRM allows you to block printing of a message.
3. Cut and paste is disabled for protected messages.
4. You cannot get round it by using a non-MS mail client, the client will simply not be able to open the email at all.
5. Screenshots are feasible but how many large corporations filter images in email sent externally? I know we do!
This is not going to be as trivial to work round as many are suggesting.
I got around this a while ago by setting everything to "no hardware acceleration". Bingo! PrtScr captured to clipboard, email-a-mondo.
Notes encryption had a key length of 64 bits, but 24 of those bits were escrowed with US government agencies. As you know, 40 bit keys are trivially easy to break. It was a big issue about 8 years ago. However, I doubt it was discussed in the mainstream press. As for your comment about security, there is no way to know since no one has audited the full source.