SafeUM
Home Blog Services Download Help About Recharge

Axarhöfði 14, 110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015
SafeUM
Blog
Services
Download
Help
About
Recharge
Menu
Archive
TOP Security!
22 Aug 2013

Don't use Windows 8 due to risk of 'back doors', German government warns

The German government has recommended that Federal Administration and other high profile public sector departments in the country do not use Windows 8 because, it warns, it contains security backdoors that cannot be controlled or trusted, and that may be easily accessible by the NSA.

The warnings are present in leaked documents obtained by German daily newspaper Zeit.de:

"Due to the loss of full sovereignty over the information technology, the security objectives of ‘confidentiality' and ‘integrity' can no longer be guaranteed. "This can have significant consequences on the IT security of the Federal Administration," the documents say.

The focus of the security concerns is the Trusted Computing technology standard, which has been in existence for more than a decade. It was developed by major US hardware and software manufacturers, including Intel, HP, AMD, Dell and Microsoft.

The German government's documents allege that the group's core hardware element - a chip called the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which appears in hardware built by Trusted Computing Group companies - interfaces directly with Windows 8 and enables Microsoft remote, unfettered access to any computer on which the operating system runs.

The leaked document is dated from early 2012 - pre-dating the release of Windows 8 - and explains how IT experts at the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) made these supposed discoveries.

They claim that they found out that the TPM chip's digital rights management (DRM) capabilities can decide which software on a computer can be enabled or disabled, and is fully remotely controlled by Microsoft.

The TPM 2.0 hardware interface - launched in late 2011 - is activated by default when a computer boots, and cannot be turned off.

The German government fears that access to these backdoor systems could easily be passed to the National Security Agency, the US spying agency, and its so-called Prism group, which is known to be involved in secretly recording internet data, such as emails and voice calls.

The scope of its activities was exposed when whistleblower Edward Snowden last month leaked several thousand documents to The Guardian newspaper.

The German government warns that use of Windows 8 - with such a believed risk from TPM - is "unacceptable for the Federal Administration and for operators of critical infrastructure".

It calls Windows 8 "already" unusable because of TPM 2.0, but that Windows 7 can be "operated safely until 2020". Finally, the documents complain that German companies tried to get involved in the formation of TPM 2.0's standard, but were snubbed by the hardware companies involved.

However, the document asserts that the NSA was involved and enjoyed an influential role. Shortly after Snowden sought refuge in Russia, the Russian government revealed that it was dumping all its PCs for sensitive work - and using typewriters instead.  

Tags:
Windows surveillance Germany NSA Microsoft
Source:
Computing
1900
Other NEWS
3 Jul 2020 safeum news imgage An encrypted messaging service has been infiltrated by police
4 May 2020 safeum news imgage Two-Factor Authentication ​What Is It and Why You Should Use It
12 Dec 2019 safeum news imgage Encryption is under threat - this is how it affects you
4 Nov 2019 safeum news imgage Should Big Decisions Be Based on Data or Your Intuition?
7 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought
4 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Hackers target Booking.com in criminal bid to steal hundreds of thousands from customers
1 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
30 May 2018 safeum news imgage US says North Korea behind malware attacks
29 May 2018 safeum news imgage Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed
25 May 2018 safeum news imgage A new reason to not buy these cheap Android devices
24 May 2018 safeum news imgage Flaws in smart pet devices, apps could come back to bite owners
23 May 2018 safeum news imgage Google sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data
21 May 2018 safeum news imgage LocationSmart reportedly leaked phone location data onto the web
18 May 2018 safeum news imgage The SEC created its own scammy ICO to teach investors a lesson
17 May 2018 safeum news imgage Thieves suck millions out of Mexican banks in transfer heist
All news
SafeUM
Confidential Terms of Use Our technologies Company
Follow us
Download
SafeUM © Safe Universal Messenger

Axarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015