Microsoft provided the FBI with Bitlocker encryption keys. It should come as no surprise that a US-based cloud storage service provided US intelligence with backdoor access. Encryption is only as strong as the one who controls the key to lock it.
Microsoft, the world’s dominant provider of desktop and enterprise systems, complied with an FBI warrant and handed over BitLocker recovery encryption keys. This provided the FBI with access to the encrypted hard drives of laptops seized in a fraud investigation tied to pandemic unemployment benefits.
By default, modern Windows installations tied to a Microsoft account store the BitLocker recovery key in Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. This is sold as convenience: you forget your password, Microsoft can help you get back in. What few users appreciate is that this convenience places the key into the custody of a third party, and once a third party holds that key, it is subject to the legal and political pressures of every legal jurisdiction in which that company operates.
Encryption only works if the key is inaccessible to outside parties. The moment a third party holds a copy of that key and the encryption itself becomes only symbolic. It still scrambles the data, but the lock no longer belongs exclusively to the individual.
When Apple famously resisted the FBI’s demand to unlock an iPhone a decade ago, the tech world broadly supported the notion that encryption keys should remain private. Government will always overpower the private sector. The US immediately used the “national security” plea and drafted legislation to ensure that intelligence agencies had backdoor access to all online activities. Everyone government has demanded access to online user data; companies are forced to comply.
Last February, the United Kingdom’s deep state demanded that Apple create a back door for them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, which would be an unprecedented erosion of online privacy and civil liberties. This works because once the UK seizes your data, they can hand that to the Feds in the states, and your Constitutional rights are NOT violated because the US government did not illegally seize it without a warrant.
I refuse to store anything on a digital cloud that could be compromised by the government. Under no circumstances ever store ANYTHING in the cloud, for you have no constitutional rights, and they can claim whatever they desire. The government can add items to your cloud and send you to prison.
Privacy erosion has shifted power to the state and corporations over the individual. It should come as no shock that the government demanded cloud access. The real concern is digital IDs and currency; governments are pushing to move everything digital for complete control. In my article “How to make a mint: the cryptography of anonymous electronic cash,” I discuss the NSA’s role in the digital financial system. Governments access everything you do online, on your phone, and through your bank account. Governments can justify physical searches without warrants. Nothing is sacred; your privacy rights were eliminated long ago.
