Yes that’s right, big brother wants a backdoor in your operating system even MORE of a reason to use Open Source alternatives that we can audit ourselves eh?
There has been talk of such things in the past, US government backdoors in common cryptography algorithms and now talks of backdoors in the most popular OS in the world.
Windows Vista is due to be rolled out later this year. Cambridge academic Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted.
He urged the government to look at establishing “back door” ways of getting around encryptions.
The Home Office later told the BBC News website it is in talks with Microsoft.
Yes, it bothers me.
Professor Anderson said people were discussing the idea of making computer vendors ensure “back door keys” to encrypted material were made available.
The Home Office should enter talks with Microsoft now rather than when the system is introduced, he said.
He said encryption tools generally were either good or useless.
“If they are good, you either guess the password or give up,” he said.
Source: BBC News
backbone says
we always new that there is no privacy when using windows… but this is too extreme… no comments… window$s sucks
FeaR says
Well that sucks ass. Well I’d rather keep using XP lol. bloody micro$hite….
james says
What you people fail to reaslise is the fact that without this function, people who exploit children will be able to escape prosecution, and will be freely available to continue exploiting children.
your choice either have full encryption which means that so will criminals and children will be free targets for criminals or have little to no encryption where people may be able to see your secret information but criminals who exploit people and children will be able to be prosecuted
Darknet says
james: I agree, you have to look at it from both sides, but it is a privacy issue and there tends to be lack of transparency when dealing with such issues. There’s nothing to stop the bad people using open source software, or their own algorithms or anything else. Sadly the trend tends to be the bad are ahead of the good anyway.
Navaho Gunleg says
james: That is exactly what they want you to think: all the terrible evils in the world will go away the moment we backdoor all the software in the world.
A lot of people fail to realise that children have been exploited for thousands of years and will be, with or without an Internet or Windows XP to temporary put the blame on.
You don’t mind at all that, basically, the moment you use a certain word in a document, the government can scan the whole thing you’ve just typed? Heck, they could even read the online forms you fill in but decide not to submit.
Nothing to hide eh? Everybody says that but never let me read their really personal diary entries, tell me how often they masturbate or give me their PIN-code.
I do not believe it is a double edged sword either, I feel the government should stay away from my computer, my information and my mind, no matter how I scribbled my thoughts on something.
Who’s paying for the bandwidth that these types of backdoors put some load on? These backdoors have to encrypt their data too, otherwise anyone near could sniff the data too. So that puts a load on your CPU as well. Yeh hardware vendors will love that though.
Who can guarantee that all the information retrieved will not be abused for corporate espionage or otherwise? Nobody can, really.
Too many consequences, too many questions, too much exploitable a system.
Nah, of course this isn’t a good idea.
But we surely haven’t seen the last of it; this idea of repression, err, I mean ‘protection’, will evolve as technology changes and at one point will become something grim like
We must connect every new born child to this big central system to keep them in control to prevent exploitation of children”…Nexis says
Wow.
And I though that Oklahoma considering a similar law was bad.
tj says
Eventually, due to such exploits, all data will be at risk. I’m assuming that eventually the secrets will be leaked. It is unconscionable that folks armed with the simple knowledge of your ip address and this HACK could laugh all the way to the bank, or make anyone an easy target of blackmail.
For those who think these backdoors are good ideas… May your every movement be tagged, chipped, rfid’d, cam’d/recorded, and every data packet you ever send be analyzed for further review.
And may the authorities publicly shackle you “gallows” style, becuase one or your private documents was mistakenly misinterpreted, or easily altered, for a crime you didnt commit.
Something to think about eh?
Thats why constitutions were written / to keep govt power in check.
Read them for yourselves and discover the truth.
The US Constitution specifically.
It reminds me of the final stars wars movie where the dark sith lord… yelled…. “Unlimited Power – mwaha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!”
SHITEMASTER says
Do you really expect much more? The patriot act has already been passed. And this will be too. I blame the common man for this fuckup. It is YOU, the common man who allow our leaders to crush us. You need to get pissed off at this. I’m still pissed about the patriot act, and I’m trying to form a party of activists for my cause. Laws like this are a dngerous totalitarian element, in a modern and supposedly democratic society.
And I use the term society very lightly. This is but a thin vinear, waiting to collapse. Anyuone who thinks modern democracy is in any way secure is a damned fool. Like all social structures, it is waiting to collapse.