Is Windows 8 a Trojan horse for the NSA? The German Government thinks so!

Is Windows 8 a Trojan horse for the NSA? The German Government thinks so

Is Windows 8 a Trojan horse for the NSA? The German Government thinks so

The German Government is now deeply suspicious that the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology built into a growing number of Windows 8 PCs and tablets is creating a gigantic back door for NSA surveillance, leaked documents have suggested.

Documents from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs obtained by German title Zeit Online uncover the alleged unease of officials at the direction of version 2.0 of the standard being developed under the auspices of the multi-vendor Trusted Computing Group (TCG).

TPM has been marketed as a security technology since its appearance in 2006, but version 2.0 would embed a chip on every PC that has complete control over which programs can and can’t run, a setting that can’t be over-ridden under Windows 8. The chip is also where the cryptographic data is stored for Windows BitLocker and it enables remote administration.

Windows 8 security going forward will be founded on TPM 2.0 and the ability to access or break it would be of huge value to any intelligence service.

TPM has been marketed as a security technology since its appearance in 2006, but version 2.0 would embed a chip on every PC that has complete control over which programs can and can’t run, a setting that can’t be over-ridden under Windows 8.

During TCG meetings, German officials appear to have expressed concern about the potential for abuse but were “rebuffed,” Zeit claims. The documents also refer to the NSA having representation at the meetings and the statement “the NSA agrees” in the context of leaving the technology in its current (presumably unreformed) state.

The context of this reference is not clear from the Zeit article but the implication is disturbing; the NSA thinks that TPM 2.0 does not offer a barrier to its operations.

German officials, including members of the Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt fr Sicherheit or BSI) concluded that “the use of trusted Computing technique in this form ... is unacceptable for the federal administration and the operators of critical infrastructure,” and would represent a “loss of full sovereignty over information technology.”

A second document expresses the belief that TPM 2.0 under Windows 8 is no longer usable while Windows 7 “be operated safely until 2020,” after which alternatives will need to be sourced.

Paranoid or practical?

Is the story overblown Teutonic paranoia or a valid concern about the growing power of state surveillance? Until recently, the presumption might have been to the former but the Snowden affair changed the dimensions of the debate.

The NSA has if not the capability then certainly the ambition to eavesdrop on every communication event on the Internet, and the willingness of large US firm to go along with that, or not, has generated huge controversy. Meanwhile, allegations that Microsoft has co-operated with the NSA to bypass the encryption used in some of its services are a matter of public record.

For cost reasons, TPM is rarely built into consumer PCs although the advent of Windows 8 is supposed to extend version 2.0 to all PCs over time.

For cost reasons, TPM is rarely built into consumer PCs although the advent of Windows 8 is supposed to extend version 2.0 to all PCs over time. Newer devices such as Windows 8 tablets and some phones are likely to have a TPM although getting precise data on this is not easy. Linux supports Intel’s TPM 1.0, although unlike 2.0 this can be loaded and unloaded from the endpoint.

Ironically, an expert quoted in the Zeit article goes on to worry that the Chinese Government as well as the NSA might be able to access data through TPM 2.0; many TPM chips are manufactured in the country.

After years of low-level discussion among security experts, worries over surveillance backdoors have suddenly become a mainstream topic. Last month an Australian report claimed that intelligence services in the ‘five eyes’ alliance (the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) had refused to use PCs made by Chinese-founded Lenovo over concerns about “backdoor hardware and firmware vulnerabilities.”

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It seems that the great good that computers and the internet are capable of is being harpooned by lesser men with baser intentions.

A) do not use built-in or commercial encryption
B) do use encrypted e-mail and block file systems supported by open source encryption
C) don't save incriminating or sensitive data on a fixed hard-drive
D) for the love of Almighty God, don't use a weak password and don't lose your USB key
E) recommended software solutions include TOR, GPG and TrueCrypt
F) use all three, sending encrypted e-mails and files over the TOR network
G) if possible, allow your computer to serve as a TOR bridge ... the more bridges, the safer the network becomes
H) TOR encrypts everything leaving your computer. This means if you encrypt a file or e-mail before sending it, the file or e-mail in-its-encrypted-form is the 'plaintext'. This renders it pretty much impossible to know if the TOR encryption has been successfully broken or not because the file STILL consists of encrypted 'garbage'.
I) do not trust anyone or anything you do not know personally ... and for an extended time.
J) do not trust me: verify EVERYTHING I have written
K) consider that anything you place on the internet (even here) can and eventually WILL be used against you in court. It will be used by the prosecution to attack you. Anything that favors your defense WILL NOT be presented in court unless you are able to do it.

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