Gov't. of Germany: Windows 8 "It's no good"

[Derek891]

"Es nutzt nichts" means "That's no good"

[hazelnut]

Perhaps you need to link to something Derek.

 

There are many articles around about the Microsoft Trusted Platform Module at the moment and I'm not sure which one you are on about.

[Derek891]

Sorry Hazelnut. Please be patient. I was in the middle of cutting and pasting several links and closed the Piriform tab by accident. Starting over (sigh).

[Derek891]

Redo. I was on the Investment Watch website and found an interesting story. It seems security analysts working for the government of Germany have found what they feel is an exploitable feature in Windows 8, Trusted Platform Module, or TPM for short. The full story is here:

 

http://investmentwat...-links-the-nsa/

 

The next day, the website Computer World UK had a follow-up story:

 

http://blogs.compute...ntrol/index.htm

 

After a brief Google search, I came up with a couple of similar stories plus links to Micosoft Technet concerning TPM implementation and management:

 

http://technet.micro...y/jj889441.aspx

 

http://technet.micro...y/jj679889.aspx

 

So someone tell me: is this a cause for concern? Out of curiosity I ran Regedit, clicked Edit, then Find, and entered a search for "TPM". The result: 96 entries that clearly reference TPM, and several more that were somewhat ambiguous. So it is on my machine. However, after reading one of the Technet articles, I found the command tpm.msc and ran it. The panel that opened claimed that TPM 1.2 was not enabled. So now I'm really confused.

 

I know it is supposed to be a security feature, but if it is indeed an exploitable feature, how secure are Windows 8 users? Your comments please.

[Derek891]

From one of Microsoft TechNet's pages:

 

"The state of the TPM exists independent of the computer’s operating system. Once the TPM is enabled, activated, and owned, the state of the TPM is preserved if the operating system is reinstalled.

If your computer has a TPM 2.0, these states of existence do not apply. A TPM 2.0 cannot be turned off from within the operating system environment"

[Andavari]

I know it is supposed to be a security feature, but if it is indeed an exploitable feature,

how secure are Windows 8 users

?

 

All versions of Windows past, present, and future will always have exploits, which is ironic in them naming it Windows since glass is easily broken and a Window is easily opened!

[Derek891]

I think the point the Germans are trying to make is that this vulnerability did not occur by accident; it was deliberately designed that way.

[hazelnut]

These days, with the NSA and Prism thing going on, everything seems to be suspect.

[trium]

yet we have xp and 7