Microsoft has basically confirmed that it can hand over BitLocker recovery keys to law enforcement if there’s a valid legal request.
BitLocker is the built-in disk encryption used on lots of Windows 11 machines, and many people don’t realize that the recovery keys get saved to Microsoft’s cloud by default — which means if the FBI or another agency gets a warrant, Microsoft can hand those keys over to help crack open a locked device. This hasn’t been widely known until recently, but reports say at least one case in Guam involving fraud investigations saw the FBI get the keys from Microsoft and use them to unlock encrypted laptops.
It’s stirred up a bunch of privacy debates because the whole point of encryption is to keep prying eyes out, and folks are pointing out that other tech companies design their systems so the provider can’t hand over keys even with a warrant. While Microsoft says key recovery is meant to be a convenience for users, security experts worry storing these keys in the cloud makes them a potential weak spot — not just for law enforcement access but also if hackers ever breach those cloud systems.
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