No backdoors in Vista, vows Microsoft

Windows Vista won't have a backdoor that could be used by police forces to get into encrypted files, Microsoft has stressed.

In February, a BBC News story suggested that the UK government was in discussions with Microsoft over backdoor access to the operating system. A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication to gain access to a computer without the PC user knowing.

But Microsoft has now quelled the suggestion that law enforcement might get such access.

A company representative said in a statement sent via email: "Microsoft has not and will not put 'backdoors' into Windows."

The discussion centres on BitLocker Drive Encryption, a planned security feature for Vista, the update to the Windows operating system. BitLocker encrypts data to protect it if the computer is lost or stolen.

This feature could make it harder for law enforcement agencies to get access to data on seized computers.

Niels Ferguson, a developer and cryptographer at Microsoft, wrote on Thursday in his post titled 'Back-door nonsense' on a corporate blog: "The suggestion is that we are working with governments to create a back door so that they can always access BitLocker-encrypted data. Over my dead body."

Microsoft is talking to various governments about Vista. However, the talks are about using the new operating system and BitLocker for their own security, Ferguson wrote. "We also get questions from law enforcement organisations. They foresee that they will want to read BitLocker-encrypted data, and they want to be prepared," he wrote.

Ferguson added: "Back doors are simply not acceptable. Besides, they wouldn't find anybody on this team willing to implement and test the back door."

Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP, is slated to be available by year's end.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com