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Comment by init2null | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't use them. Is there any chance at all that those don't have an NSA backdoor? I think most hardware encryption just XOR's on the phrase "We're the government. It's for your own good."

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The same chance as Windows encryption having a backdoor of course.

Windows encryption could at least theoretically be audited via decompilation, whatever firmware happens to be installed on your random hard drive? Not a chance.

I think if a state entity is dead set on acquiring your data, they will do that once they have access to the chips.

This notion that your encryption- any encryption- is going to stop a state-funded actor from getting past to your data is just as ridiculous IMO as the people who stockpile AR-15's and cosplay soldiers on the weekends think they're a realistic threat to the same military that has predator drones.

If the government wants your data, they probably already have it, just like if they wanted you dead, you'd already be in the ground. Assuming there's enough left of you to bury anyway.

"State actor defeatist"-style arguments against taking any technical precautions often conflate two things that the government does: 1. Large scale mostly passive dragnet surveillance, 2. Individually targeted surveillance.

Reasonable people can admit that they can't do much about case 2, while still believing that applying countermeasures against 1 can be effective. Also note there is more than one government in the world that may intend to exploit your lack of privacy...

Just because you're given up on privacy and sovereignty doesn't mean you should go around infecting others with the same contagion.

True, but worrying that your hard disk encryption is vulnerable to the NSA is something that only makes sense if you're dealing with case 2, not case 1.

And yet, Afghanistan sent the US military packing.

> whatever firmware happens to be installed on your random hard drive? Not a chance.

Well, there's certainly a chance. Firmware is reverse-engineered all the time.

> The same chance as Windows encryption having a backdoor of course.

The NSA has loaded their firmware after the fact without the drives' OEMs cooperation:

* https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/nsa-hid-spying-software-in-h...

If I’m encrypting my disk, the NSA is far at the bottom of people I want to be safe from. At least the NSA might make a reasonably well implemented backdoor.

My sympathies to you if you feel the NSA is the biggest threat you're facing. I just don't want somone who steals my laptop to be able to empty my bank account. That's why I always turn whole disk encryption on.

Well if I were trying to defend myself against the NSA I would be doing different things entirely… alas there is no threat model I’m concerned with that includes the NSA. For starters hard drive encryption would be the least of my worries.

Exactly this. If your threat profile includes the possibility of special governmental attention, then you're playing a much more serious game and need to be off the grid entirely.

The only way to keep your data safe if the NSA decides they want to have a look, is to not use modern technology.

Even if you have the type of resources that a big tech corporation like Google has, sooner or later the NSA will get a copy of your data.

The primary value of bitlocker is to defend against theft, not the NSA.

And if you use Windows the way Microsoft wants you to, all your data is already on OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint (which actually is the backend for the former too). Which the NSA can simply demand access to.

Is there any chance that Microsoft's disk encryption doesn't have an NSA backdoor?

Chances are that Microsoft disk encryption implementation is so bad, that an explicit NSA backdoor is not necessary.

If it does, there's zero chance that Microsoft know about it. When your company is worth $2,427,000,000,000 , you'd have to be insane to risk it all like that.

Trillion dollar US corporations are still under US law, which does include security requests and gag orders from secret services.

so you're saying there's a chance?

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