Windows 7 can allow potentially incriminating data (such as child pornography) to be encrypted on a user"s hard drive and make detection by police "impossible", experts in Australia claim. Speaking to News.com.au, Hetty Johnson, a member of the Federal Government, called on Microsoft to act now and make immediate changes. "If this new product gives paedophiles protection to keep harming children I would be extremely disappointed. I would expect the company to take moves to rectify this."
Australian law states that authorities can obtain warrants to use a Trojan horse to gain access to a computer"s data, but unlike British law, refusing to decrypt data when requested by the police is completely legal. Adrian McCullagh, of the Queensland University of Technology, believes that current laws slow down police in their investigations. "They need to act quickly and legal powers to force criminals to surrender decryption keys or face a possible jail term."
Despite encryption being present in Windows for several years, Dr McCullagh fears that "with so many people using Microsoft, within years most people will have access to this technology...there are legitimate reasons for encryption, but there are also criminal reasons."