Microsoft provided the FBI with recovery keys to unlock encrypted data on the hard drives of three laptops as part of a federal investigation, Forbes reported on Friday.
Many modern Windows computers rely on full disk encryption called BitLocker, which is enabled by default. This type of technology requires that when the computer is locked and powered off, no one other than the device owner can access the data.
But by default, BitLocker recovery keys are uploaded to Microsoft's cloud, allowing the tech giant and even law enforcement to access them and use them to decrypt BitLocker-encrypted drives, as in the case reported by Forbes.
The case involved several people suspected of fraud related to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program on the U.S. island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. Local news outlet Pacific Daily News reported on the case last year, saying a warrant had been filed against Microsoft in connection with the suspect's hard drive. Kandit News, another Guam local news outlet, also reported in October that the FBI had sought a warrant six months after seizing three BitLocker-encrypted laptops.
A Microsoft spokesperson did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. Microsoft told Forbes that it occasionally provides BitLocker recovery keys to authorities and receives an average of 20 such requests a year.
Aside from the privacy risks of handing over recovery keys to a company, Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins University professor and cryptography expert, raised a potential scenario in which a malicious hacker could compromise Microsoft's cloud infrastructure (which has happened several times in recent years) and gain access to these recovery keys. To use a stolen recovery key, a hacker must have physical access to your hard drive.
“It's 2026, but these concerns have been known for years,” Green wrote in a Blue Sky post. “Microsoft is becoming an outlier from the rest of the industry because of its inability to protect critical customer keys.”
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