Schneier: Man Sues Compaq for False Advertizing

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Here's an interesting story with a twist.

Bruce Schneier writes over on his blog:

[snip]

Convicted felon Michael Crooker is suing Compaq (now HP) for false advertising. He bought a computer promised to be 
secure, but the FBI got his data anyway:

He bought it in September 2002, expressly because it had a feature called DriveLock, which freezes up the hard drive if 
you don't have the proper password.

The computer's manual claims that "if one were to lose his Master Password and his User Password, then the hard drive 
is useless and the data cannot be resurrected even by Compaq's headquarters staff," Crooker wrote in the suit.

Crooker has a copy of an ATF search warrant for files on the computer, which includes a handwritten notation: "Computer 
lock not able to be broken/disabled. Computer forwarded to FBI lab." Crooker says he refused to give investigators the 
password, and was told the computer would be broken into "through a backdoor provided by Compaq," which is now part of 
HP.

[snip]

More here:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/05/man_sues_compaq.html

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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