Microsoft offers "self destructing documents"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 02:05:53 -0700
To: dave () farber net, declan () well com
From: Tim Bishop <geodog () cyberdude com>
Subject: Microsoft offers self destructing documents

Dave and Declan,

For IP and/or  Politech, if you want.

While I suspect that people will quickly figure out how to break this first 
generation DRM with the equivalent of a magic marker or using the shift 
key, and of course the expired documents will still be on the (Windows) 
server, this is probably a pretty good indicator of where governments and 
corporations are headed, and Microsoft has a history of successfully 
iterating products. While others debate DRM, Microsoft is creating facts on 
the ground. Not an encouraging development.

Thanks,
Tim Bishop

--
email mailto://geodog () cyberdude com
opinions http://geodog.thebishop.net/
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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you, it's the things you know that 
ain't so"
-- Mark Twain

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Microsoft offers 'self destructing' documents

14:50 21 October 03

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994295


The latest version of Microsoft's hugely successful Office software suite 
launches on Tuesday, with its most eye-catching feature a new ability to 
make documents and emails "self-destruct".

Experts say the feature should act as a barrier against sensitive 
information being copied or leaked, but they say it is unlikely to stop any 
determined attempt.

Office 2003 features new versions of Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint, 
along with various usability tweaks and new functionality. But the software 
also comes with the ability to let users control the way other people use 
the documents they create. This can be used to prevent other people 
forwarding, copying or even printing a protected email message or document.

"It should work," says Simson Garfinkel, a computer forensics expert at 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "But it could be defeated by a 
hostile user. There's no way you could prevent someone from taking a 
digital picture of the screen."

Garfinkel told New Scientist that the problem is similar to the one faced 
when trying to develop copy-protected music formats. Even the most tightly 
controlled music can be recorded as it is played through a speaker, a 
problem referred to as "the analogue hole".


Time stamp

The rights control feature in Office 2003 depends on having an intermediary 
computer system with Windows Server 2003 and a software package called 
Rights Management Service installed.

A protected email message sent between two users is encrypted and the 
recipient's version of Outlook will check with the server to see if the 
user is allowed to edit, copy or forward the message. A time-stamp can also 
be applied to make the message unreadable after a certain date.

Other documents that can be stored on a user's machine, such as Word files, 
are encrypted in order to control access. Each user's version of Word will 
access the central server to determine how that person is allowed to use 
the document.

Some have raised concerns that automatically deleting email messages and 
documents could cause legal problems with, for example, financial 
regulators who demand by law that all company records are kept.

But Microsoft says the new feature is not designed to remove all traces of 
a file. "The message will still be in various places," says Mike 
Pryke-Smith, marketing manager for Microsoft's Information Worker Group in 
the UK. He says the functionality is more about enforcing company policy. 
"Right now you can put 'confidential' on a document, but that's all."


...
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