UK Government Wants a Backdoor Into Windows

REBloomfield writes "The BBC is reporting that the British Government is working with Microsoft in order to gain backdoor access to hard drives encrypted by the forthcoming Windows Vista file system. Professor Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, urged the Government to contact Microsoft over fears that evidence could be lost by suspects claiming to have forgotten their encryption key."

Comments

They just need to wait...

[Arthur B.]

... until the crack is published :) (sadly this is more insightful than funny)

What about the RIP bill?

[twoshortplanks]

From TFS:

Professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, urged the Government to contact Microsoft over fears that evidence could be lost by suspects claiming to have forgotten their encryption key.

Then lock them up for that. It's a crime to not provide your key under the RIP bill. If the government is going to pass stupid legislation like that, then they shouldn't need these backdoors.

since when...

[revery]

Since when does the government have a right to all evidence in any case? One aspect of English law that I thought existed, is that the people should be protected from the government (particularly from self-incrimination). One could reasonably argue that the average citizen needs the availability of government-inaccessible encryption, due to the decreased cost (in terms of time and manpower) required to search through computer records vs. paper records. Current computers, and the massive amounts of data that they store (internet cookies, browsing history, cache data, registry entries, etc.) make fishing expeditions much, much, easier on law enforcement than sifting through physical documents and interviewing co-workers and family.