December 28th, 2006
Vista = Big Brother?
“PC users around the globe may find driver software is stopped from working by Vista if it detects unauthorised content access. Peter Guttman, a security engineering researcher at New Zealand’s university of Auckland, has written A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. He reckons Vista is trying to achieve the impossible by protecting access to premium content. Users will find their PCs’ compromised by the persistent and continuous content access checks carried out by Vista.”
…read more
Soeren over at his blog has a few words to say about Peter Gutmann’s paper which should be considered when reading Gutmann’s paper.
WGA, or Windows Genuine Advantage, is indeed an anti-piracy component. However, that one is not tied to “system hardware components†at all, but only to your Internet connection. The author likely means WPA, or Windows Product Activation, which is indeed completely tied to your hardware.
- Soeren Says
Now I can understand the need for protection, but at the risk of crippling ones system is unwise. As more reports come out regarding Microsofts “security” the less likely I find myself considering an upgrade to Vista.