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FYI: ASLR in LINUX, Vista, and OS X (was Re: [C-REPS] Article: Tool makes mincemeat of passwords)
by billing 31 Mar '08

31 Mar '08

...from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_space_layout_randomization Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a computer security technique which involves arranging the positions of key data areas, usually including the base of the executable and position of libraries, heap, and stack, randomly in a process' address space. [The most common exploits take advantage of a known positions for specific structures such as heap and stack locations in memory. The idea behind ASLR is to randomly position in memory these sometimes vulnerable structures to make it more difficult for an automated exploit.] In Linux, a weak form of ASLR has been enabled by default since kernel version 2.6.12. The PaX and ExecShield patchsets to the Linux kernel provide more complete implementations. Various Linux distributions including Adamantix, Hardened Gentoo, and Hardened Linux From Scratch come with PaX's implementation of ASLR by default. Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 have ASLR enabled by default, although only for executables which are specifically linked to be ASLR enabled. [NOTE: from http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=104 - Those applications which link to the ANSI C heap allocation API malloc() are less vulnerable to exploitation. Beyond ASLR, there is / GS, a compile-time option in Visual C++ that adds stack-based buffer overrun detection, /SafeSEH, Data Execution Protection and Function Pointer Obfuscation. As Microsoft's Michael Howard explained when ASLR was added to Windows Vista Beta 2, it is not a panacea or a replacement for insecure code. "[But] when used in conjunction with other technologies,it is a useful defense because it makes Windows systems look 'different' to malware, making automated attacks harder."] Apple introduced randomization of some library offsets in Mac OS X v10.5[3], presumably as a stepping stone to fully implementing ASLR at a later date. Wayne

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INTEREST: National Geographic pictures/story of Antarctic ice shelf collapse
by billing 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

...from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080325-antarctica-photo.html March 25, 2008—New satellite images reveal what scientists call the "runaway" collapse of an enormous ice shelf in Antarctica as the result of global warming. (Read full story.) The chunk of coastal ice was some 160 square miles (415 square kilometers) in area—about seven times the size of Manhattan. The shelf's rapid collapse began on February 28 (see image sequence at top right), sending a giant swath of broken ice into the sea—as seen in the bottom image, which shows a 2-mile-wide (3.2-kilometer-wide) area. "[It's] an event we don't get to see very often," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, said in a press statement.

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INTEREST: China Law Could Impede Microsoft Deal for Yahoo
by billing 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/technology/28yahoo.html?th&emc=th China Law Could Impede Microsoft Deal for Yahoo By JOHN MARKOFF Published: March 28, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft’s hostile-takeover attempt againstYahoo may encounter an unexpected hurdle in August after a Chinese antimonopoly law takes effect that will extend the nation’s economic influence far beyond its borders. The law, which goes into effect on Aug. 1, is intended to strengthen an existing set of antitrust regulations the Chinese originally established in 1993. It will make China a third sphere of regulatory influence, matching the power of the European Union and the United States, according to legal specialists in this country and in China who have studied it. Formally enacted by the National People’s Congress last year, the measure gives Chinese regulators authority to examine foreign mergers when they involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies’ operations. Beijing could also consider national security issues, according to a report by the official news agency Xinhua. The law could give China influence in Microsoft’s courtship of Yahoo because in August 2005, Yahoo, a premier search portal, invested $1 billion in Alibaba.com, China’s largest e-commerce business. The investment gave Yahoo about a 40 percent stake in the Chinese company. Alibaba officials have said they believe that a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo would set in motion a buyback provision, making it possible for them to gain independence from Microsoft. Nathan G. Bush, an antitrust law specialist with O’Melveny & Myers in Beijing, said the law represented the ascendance of China “as another regulatory capital contending for influence with Brussels and Washington.” “Multinational corporations will need to develop strategies for all the markets they operate in,” he added, “and China is a big market.” Whether China would seek to review a Microsoft acquisition, and what kind of posture it might take, would be closely watched by regulators and global companies as an indication whether it will play a conciliatory or a nationalistic role on the world stage. “I don’t think anyone has worked through the issue of where an Internet merger should be reviewed, given that it truly is a World Wide Web,” said Andrew I. Gavil, a law professor at Howard University. There are potentially dozens of jurisdictions that could claim oversight in such a deal because of the global business interests of the two huge companies and because it could potentially transform the Internet into two megaportals, Google and Microsoft. Other parts of the world that might have an active interest in the outcome of a merger include South Korea, a vibrant Internet economy where an antitrust investigation into Microsoft was previously opened. Executives at Microsoft and Yahoo declined to comment on the possible effect of the new Chinese law. In rejecting Microsoft’s takeover bid in January, Yahoo’s chief executive,Jerry Yang, said in a letter to employees that the offer substantially undervalued the company, in part because of the significant growth potential of the Alibaba business in China. [...] Last week, a vice minister in the State Council Information Office, which oversees the Internet, said there were 230 million Chinese users of the Internet. He said the Internet sector accounted for 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and he expected that to rise to 15 percent in three to four years, according to a Reuters report. The official, Cai Mingzhao, warned that foreigners should not use the Internet to interfere in Chinese internal matters, according to a report in The Guardian. Even if the Chinese government did not try to prevent a takeover by Microsoft, a prolonged review could substantially damage the value of the business, a number of Internet industry executives said.

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FYI: OS X copes with exploit (was Re: Tool makes mincemeat of passwords)
by billing 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

On 26-Mar-08, at 3:18 PM, Lonnie Smetana wrote: > Tool makes mincemeat of Windows passwords > By Dan Goodin in San Francisco > Published Tuesday 4th March 2008 23:57 GMT > > A security researcher has released an easy-to-use tool that accesses > locked Windows computers in seconds without entering a password. > > The tool, which was released Tuesday by Adam Boileau, works by > connecting a Linux machine to the Firewire port of the target PC and > modifying the password protection that's stored in local memory. > > The attack exploits a well-known weakness in Firewire that makes it > easy for connected devices to read and write to the memory of the > host machine. Similar hacks work on machines running OS X and Linux > (see here (http://www.matasano.com/log/695/windows-remote-memory-access-though-firewir…) > ). > [...] ...from: http://rentzsch.com/macosx/securingFirewire Friday, November 12, 2004 "The only evidence I have seen of the 'fix' [for the Firewire hack] was in Darwin's source-code - ie, nothing official from Apple. It first appeared in IOFireWireFamily v122.4.2 (Darwin v6.2/Mac OS X 10.2.2) which was released November 2002. That was obviously a few months after MacHax Best Hack Contest 2002 where [the Firewire/DMA exploit won first prize.]" - - - - - - In addition, Apple's technical people suggest, if you wish more protection against any RAM exploits under OS X that you "Use secure virtual memory". They've said that this will protect not only application memory but also the actual OS areas where password exploits would most probably be aimed. How to enable "Use secure virtual memory": - from the Apple menu, select "System Preferences..." - click on (Security) and choose the General tab if necessary - ensure there is a check mark next to "Use secure virtual memory" I've been running this for a while now without any problems and there does not appear to be any performance hit either. Finally, I've done a little bit of looking for similar protections for LINUX and Windows. Will post if I stumble across them. Wayne

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FYI: An invitation to the Aperture World Tour
by billing 24 Mar '08

24 Mar '08

[NOTE: a (free) ID at Apple is required for registration for this event.] Venue information: Aperture 2 Canadian Tour Attend a free, in-depth seminar given by Apple photography experts for a close look at the next generation of Apple’s powerful photo editing and management software. April 29, 2008 - April 29, 2008 01:30 PM - 04:30 PM The Park Theatre and Movie Café 698 Osborne Street Winnipeg, MB Canada Number of seats still available for this event : 114 Begin forwarded message: > From: Apple <News_Canada(a)insideapple.apple.com> > Date: March 24, 2008 4:06:48 PM CDT (CA) > Subject: An invitation to the Aperture World Tour > > > > > > > > > > Aperture World Tour > Join the tour: > Edmonton - April 8 > Vancouver - April 10 > Calgary - April 14 > Montreal - April 23 > Winnipeg - April 29 > > Apple takes Aperture 2 on tour around the world. > > With its simplified user interface, Aperture 2 is easy enough for > any photographer to pick up and use. Intuitive and accessible, it > brings a variety of new interface features that members of Apple's > pro photo marketing team will demonstrate during the tour. > > Space in the Aperture Tour fills quickly, so you'll want to sign up > right away and reserve your seat. > > > > > All seminars are held in English. > > Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. > > Dates and product specifications are subject to change without notice. > > Apple Canada Inc. 7495 Birchmount Road, Markham, ON L3R 5G2 > All Rights Reserved / Privacy Policy / My Info > > If you prefer not to receive commercial email from Apple, or if > you've changed your email address, please click here. > > Copyright © 2008 Apple Inc. > >

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INTEREST: Court documents show evolution of "Vista Capable"
by billing 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09digi.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=… They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know. By RANDALL STROSS Published: March 9, 2008 ONE year after the birth of Windows Vista, why do so many Windows XP users still decline to “upgrade”? RelatedMicrosoft's E-mail Messages (pdf)Text of Plaintiff Complaints (pdf)Text of Microsoft's Response to Plaintiffs (pdf) Microsoft says high prices have been the deterrent. Last month, the company trimmed prices on retail packages of Vista, trying to entice consumers to overcome their reluctance. In the United States, an XP user can now buy Vista Home Premium for $129.95, instead of $159.95. An alternative theory, however, is that Vista’s reputation precedes it. XP users have heard too many chilling stories from relatives and friends about Vista upgrades that have gone badly. The graphics chip that couldn’t handle Vista’s whizzy special effects. The long delays as it loaded. The applications that ran at slower speeds. The printers, scanners and other hardware peripherals, which work dandily with XP, that lacked the necessary software, the drivers, to work well with Vista. Can someone tell me again, why is switching XP for Vista an “upgrade”? Here’s one story of a Vista upgrade early last year that did not go well. Jon, let’s call him, (bear with me — I’ll reveal his full identity later) upgrades two XP machines to Vista. Then he discovers that his printer, regular scanner and film scanner lack Vista drivers. He has to stick with XP on one machine just so he can continue to use the peripherals. Did Jon simply have bad luck? Apparently not. When another person, Steven, hears about Jon’s woes, he says drivers are missing in every category — “this is the same across the whole ecosystem.” Then there’s Mike, who buys a laptop that has a reassuring “Windows Vista Capable” logo affixed. He thinks that he will be able to run Vista in all of its glory, as well as favorite Microsoft programs like Movie Maker. His report: “I personally got burned.” His new laptop — logo or no logo — lacks the necessary graphics chip and can run neither his favorite video-editing software nor anything but a hobbled version of Vista. “I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine,” he says. It turns out that Mike is clearly not a naïf. He’s Mike Nash, a Microsoft vice president who oversees Windows product management. And Jon, who is dismayed to learn that the drivers he needs don’t exist? That’s Jon A. Shirley, a Microsoft board member and former president and chief operating officer. And Steven, who reports that missing drivers are anything but exceptional, is in a good position to know: he’s Steven Sinofsky, the company’s senior vice president responsible for Windows. Their remarks come from a stream of internal communications at Microsoft in February 2007, after Vista had been released as a supposedly finished product and customers were paying full retail price. Between the nonexistent drivers and PCs mislabeled as being ready for Vista when they really were not, Vista instantly acquired a reputation at birth: Does Not Play Well With Others. We usually do not have the opportunity to overhear Microsoft’s most senior executives vent their personal frustrations with Windows. But a lawsuit filed against Microsoft in March 2007 in United States District Court in Seattle has pried loose a packet of internal company documents. The plaintiffs, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen, bought PCs in late 2006, before Vista’s release, and contend that Microsoft’s “Windows Vista Capable” stickers were misleading when affixed to machines that turned out to be incapable of running the versions of Vista that offered the features Microsoft was marketing as distinctive Vista benefits. Last month, Judge Marsha A. Pechman granted class-action status to the suit, which is scheduled to go to trial in October. (Microsoft last week appealed the certification decision.) Anyone who bought a PC that Microsoft labeled “Windows Vista Capable” without also declaring “Premium Capable” is now a party in the suit. The judge also unsealed a cache of 200 e-mail messages and internal reports, covering Microsoft’s discussions of how best to market Vista, beginning in 2005 and extending beyond its introduction in January 2007. The documents incidentally include those accounts of frustrated Vista users in Microsoft’s executive suites. Today, Microsoft boasts that there are twice as many drivers available for Vista as there were at its introduction, but performance and graphics problems remain. (When I tried last week to contact Mr. Shirley and the others about their most recent experiences with Vista, David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman, said that no one named in the e-mail messages could be made available for comment because of the continuing lawsuit.) RelatedMicrosoft's E-mail Messages (pdf)Text of Plaintiff Complaints (pdf)Text of Microsoft's Response to Plaintiffs (pdf) The messages were released in a jumble, but when rearranged into chronological order, they show a tragedy in three acts. Act 1: In 2005, Microsoft plans to say that only PCs that are properly equipped to handle the heavy graphics demands of Vista are “Vista Ready.” Act 2: In early 2006, Microsoft decides to drop the graphics-related hardware requirement in order to avoid hurting Windows XP sales on low- end machines while Vista is readied. (A customer could reasonably conclude that Microsoft is saying, Buy Now, Upgrade Later.) A semantic adjustment is made: Instead of saying that a PC is “Vista Ready,” which might convey the idea that, well, it is ready to run Vista, a PC will be described as “Vista Capable,” which supposedly signals that no promises are made about which version of Vista will actually work. The decision to drop the original hardware requirements is accompanied by considerable internal protest. The minimum hardware configuration was set so low that “even a piece of junk will qualify,” Anantha Kancherla, a Microsoft program manager, said in an internal e-mail message among those recently unsealed, adding, “It will be a complete tragedy if we allowed it.” Act 3: In 2007, Vista is released in multiple versions, including “Home Basic,” which lacks Vista’s distinctive graphics. This placed Microsoft’s partners in an embarrassing position.Dell, which gave Microsoft a postmortem report that was also included among court documents, dryly remarked: “Customers did not understand what ‘Capable’ meant and expected more than could/would be delivered.” All was foretold. In February 2006, after Microsoft abandoned its plan to reserve the Vista Capable label for only the more powerful PCs, its own staff tried to avert the coming deluge of customer complaints about underpowered machines. “It would be a lot less costly to do the right thing for the customer now,” said Robin Leonard, a Microsoft sales manager, in an e-mail message sent to her superiors, “than to spend dollars on the back end trying to fix the problem.” Now that Microsoft faces a certified class action, a judge may be the one who oversees the fix. In the meantime, where does Microsoft go to buy back its lost credibility? Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross(a)nytimes.com.

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FYI: Sun Microsystems announces intent to make JAVA for iPhone
by billing 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

http://www.sun.com/home-modules/media/k5_030808.html This would probably be based on the Java Micro Edition, a "mobile" version of the software most often used for cellphone games and specialized business applications. "We're going to work to make sure that the [virtual machine] offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible," Sun's Java marketing VP, Eric Klein said. Release of Java for the iPhone and iPod touch would not appear until sometime after Apple's June launch of its version 2.0 firmware and the App Store needed to download the program. ...more details may be available at Sun's Java One conference May 6-9, 2008. Wayne

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Apple - Bringing Learning to Life - Manitoba 2008
by Doug Hamilton 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Apple Seminar for Educators, Teachers, Curriculum Coordinators, Principals & Administrators. Explore what it means to teach and learn in a 21st century learning environment. Today, the pressure to improve academic performance and to prepare students with the skills they need to succeed is greater than ever before. Research studies show that the more access students have to technology based learning, the greater their engagement and time on task. Achievement levels improve even faster when students and teachers are comfortable with technology. This conference is designed to help you rethink how an innovative educational environment can enable students to achieve in school and prepare them to succeed in the future. With subject matter experts from across Canada and the United States, listen as they share their experiences and expertise in global curricula and communities, digital learning projects, the research, assessment and the pedagogy that supports them. For More Details: http://edseminars.apple.com/seminars/event_template.php?eventTemplateID=389 This seminar is being presented by Apple Canada and does not involve the University of Manitoba directly. Please send all questions regarding this presentation to Apple Canada (see link above for contact information). Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Today, EU fine Microsoft record $1.4bn; further investigations
by billing 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

...from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7266629.stm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZyUU8LBXsw DISPUTE TIMELINE March 2004: EU fines Microsoft 497m euros and orders it to release key Windows code to rival software developers September 2004: Microsoft tries to have the ruling temporarily suspended April 2006: Microsoft appeals the ruling in the European Court of First Instance September 2007: Microsoft loses its appeal EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 20:40 GMT What's the dispute about? The European Commission has fined US computer giant Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour. Microsoft must now pay a record 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) after it failed to comply with a 2004 ruling that it abused its dominant market position. The ruling said that Microsoft was guilty of not providing key code to rival software makers. EU regulators said the firm was the first to break an EU anti-trust ruling. The fines come on top of earlier fines of 280m euros imposed in July 2006, and of 497m euros in March 2004. "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. Future improvements? An investigation concluded in 2004 that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out rivals in products such as media players, while unfairly linking its Explorer internet browser to its Windows operating system at the expense of rival servers. The European Court of First Instance upheld this ruling last year, which ordered Microsoft to pay 497m euros for abusing its dominant market position. Last week, the firm announced that it would open up the technology of some of its leading software, including Windows, to make it easier to operate with rivals' products. "As we demonstrated last week with our new interoperability principles and specific actions to increase the openness of our products, we are focusing on steps that will improve things for the future," Microsoft said. Further cases But the firm is still being pursued by Brussels. Last month, the European Commission launched two new anti-competition investigations against Microsoft into similar issues. The first will look at whether there are still problems regarding Microsoft abusing its dominance of the PC market to grab market share of the internet. The Commission will also investigate the continued interoperability of Microsoft software with rival products.

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INTEREST: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys for encrypted data
by billing 26 Feb '08

26 Feb '08

...from: Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys J. Alex Halderman, Seth D. Schoen, Nadia Heninger, William Clarkson,William Paul, Joseph A. Calandrino, Ariel J. Feldman, Jacob Appelbaum, andEdward W. Felten With thanks to the Center for Information Technology, Princeton University Abstract: Contrary to popular assumption, DRAMs used in most modern computers retain their contents for seconds to minutes after power is lost, even at operating temperatures and even if removed from a motherboard. Although DRAMs become less reliable when they are not refreshed, they are not immediately erased, and their contents persist sufficiently for malicious (or forensic) acquisition of usable full- system memory images. We show that this phenomenon limits the ability of an operating system to protect cryptographic key material from an attacker with physical access. We use cold reboots to mount attacks on popular disk encryption systems — BitLocker, FileVault, dm-crypt, and TrueCrypt — using no special devices or materials. We experimentally characterize the extent and predictability of memory remanence and report that remanence times can be increased dramatically with simple techniques. We offer new algorithms for finding cryptographic keys in memory images and for correcting errors caused by bit decay. Though we discuss several strategies for partially mitigating these risks, we know of no simple remedy that would eliminate them. ...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/technology/22chip.html?th&emc=th Researchers Find Way to Steal Encrypted Data Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University Princeton-based researchers broke the encryption system by freezing memory chips, permitting them to read the software. By JOHN MARKOFF Published: February 22, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO — A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks. The technique, which could undermine security software protecting critical data on computers, is as easy as chilling a computer memory chip with a blast of frigid air from a can of dust remover. Encryption software is widely used by companies and government agencies, notably in portable computers that are especially susceptible to theft. The development, which was described on the group’s Web site Thursday, could also have implications for the protection of encrypted personal data from prosecutors. The move, which cannot be carried out remotely, exploits a little- known vulnerability of the dynamic random access, or DRAM, chip. Those chips temporarily hold data, including the keys to modern data- scrambling algorithms. When the computer’s electrical power is shut off, the data, including the keys, is supposed to disappear. In a technical paper that was published Thursday on the Web site of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy, the group demonstrated that standard memory chips actually retain their data for seconds or even minutes after power is cut off. When the chips were chilled using an inexpensive can of air, the data was frozen in place, permitting the researchers to easily read the keys — long strings of ones and zeros — out of the chip’s memory. “Cool the chips in liquid nitrogen (-196 °C) and they hold their state for hours at least, without any power,” Edward W. Felten, a Princeton computer scientist, wrote in a Web posting. “Just put the chips back into a machine and you can read out their contents.” The researchers used special pattern-recognition software of their own to identify security keys among the millions or even billions of pieces of data on the memory chip. “We think this is pretty serious to the extent people are relying on file protection,” Mr. Felten said. The team, which included five graduate students led by Mr. Felten and three independent technical experts, said they did not know if such an attack capability would compromise government computer information because details of how classified computer data is protected are not publicly available. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, which paid for a portion of the research, did not return repeated calls for comment. The researchers also said they had not explored disk encryption protection systems as now built into some commercial disk drives. But they said they had proved that so-called Trusted Computing hardware, an industry standard approach that has been heralded as significantly increasing the security of modern personal computers, does not appear to stop the potential attacks. A number of computer security experts said the research results were an indication that assertions of robust computer security should be regarded with caution. “This is just another example of how things aren’t quite what they seem when people tell you things are secure,” said Peter Neumann, a security researcher at SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif. The Princeton researchers wrote that they were able to compromise encrypted information stored using special utilities in the Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. Apple has had a FileVault disk encryption feature as an option in its OS X operating system since 2003. Microsoft added file encryption last year with BitLocker features in its Windows Vista operating system. The programs both use the federal government’s certified Advanced Encryption System algorithm to scramble data as it is read from and written to a computer hard disk. But both programs leave the keys in computer memory in an unencrypted form. “The software world tends not to think about these issues,” said Matt Blaze, an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania. “We tend to make assumptions about the hardware. When we find out that those assumptions are wrong, we’re in trouble.” Both of the software publishers said they ship their operating systems with the file encryption turned off. It is then up to the customer to turn on the feature. Executives of Microsoft said BitLocker has a range of protection options that they referred to as “good, better and best.” Austin Wilson, director of Windows product management security at Microsoft, said the company recommended that BitLocker be used in some cases with additional hardware security. That might include either a special U.S.B. hardware key, or a secure identification card that generates an additional key string. The Princeton researchers acknowledged that in these advanced modes, BitLocker encrypted data could not be accessed using the vulnerability they discovered. An Apple spokeswoman said that the security of the FileVault system could also be enhanced by using a secure card to add to the strength of the key. The researchers said they began exploring the utilities for vulnerabilities last fall after seeing a reference to the persistence of data in memory in a technical paper written by computer scientists at Stanford in 2005. The Princeton group included Seth D. Schoen of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, William Paul of Wind River Systems and Jacob Appelbaum, an independent computer security researcher. The issue of protecting information with disk encryption technology became prominent recently in a criminal case involving a Canadian citizen who late in 2006 was stopped by United States customs agents who said they had found child pornography on his computer. When the agents tried to examine the machine later, they discovered that the data was protected by encryption. The suspect had refused to divulge his password. A federal agent testified in court that the only way to determine the password otherwise would be with a password guessing program, which could take years. A federal magistrate ruled recently that forcing the suspect to disclose the password would be unconstitutional. --- - - - - - - - http://www.aladdin.com/etoken/solutions/pc-laptop-security.aspx

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