Windoze Vista to encrypt hard drives

The BBC reports about the UK government’s concern that Windows Vista, the upcoming new version of Windows, will make it more difficult for the police to search people’s computers for illegal materials. Guess why that is:

The system uses BitLocker Drive Encryption through a chip called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in the computer’s motherboard.

It is partly aimed at preventing people from downloading unlicensed films or media.

“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.”

(More at A Fistful of Euros.)

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