TSGL: Do we regard our PCs as gods? (was encryption question)

Sun Mar 9 05:24:42 EDT 2008

Honey, a human turned on the encryption to protect his/her data, then
deleted the key to unlock the data. Human error

Regards

Justin

On 09/03/2008, Eric and Merna Bitter <embitt at westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
> Do we regard our PCs (or the operating systems on them) as gods?
>
> Because the computer won't let Craig's family member get to his/her
> pictures, do we assume too quickly or too easily that the PC knows best,
> that it controls us, that we must bow down to it?
>
> Let's assume for a moment that:
> (a)    these pictures are not computer files but good, "old-fashioned,"
> developed, physical items;
> (b)    while the family member's house was being repainted, he/she asked
> another family member or friend to look after those valued (physical)
> pictures;
> (c)    the person to whom they were entrusted was diligent (the reason
> he/she was chosen as caretaker) and put them in a box with some kind of
> protection on it (padlock, built-in lock with self-destruct mechanism,
> safe
> deposit box, other?); and
> (d)    that person dies.
>
> Wouldn't the owner of those pictures do everything he/she could to
> retrieve
> them?  Take the box home, cut the padlock, try to find the combination to
> the lock with the self-destructing mechanism, or try to locate the safe
> deposit box and prove ownership of its contents even though not holding a
> key?
>
> Craig's encryption problem was the catalyst for this post (sermon?
> lecture?
> thesis?), but I could ask the same question about other computer problems
> any one of us might have.
>
> Do we too easily, too quickly, give up?  Do we think that because the
> computer says so, it must be so?  Do we regard the computer more highly
> than
> we regard ourselves, our intellects, our capabilities?
>
> "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him."  (Voltaire)
>
> Man invented computers.  Do we regard them as gods?
>
> Merna
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric and Merna Bitter" <embitt at westnet.com.au>
> To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <list at tsgserver.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 10:58 AM
> Subject: Re: TSGL: encryption question
>
>
> Assuming she needs the space on the external drive, can she save the
> protected ones that she would like to keep in a temporary folder on her
> hard
> drive or a flash drive or a CD/DVD?  That way she would still have them to
> try unlocking methods on in the future.  If it were something I really
> didn't want to lose, I'd try that.  In fact, I'd probably copy/paste/burn
> them to more than one place in case my trials corrupted them.
>
> There may be a method available now that we simply haven't found.  If not,
> there may be a method available tomorrow or next week or next month.
>
> Merna
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Craig" <crtrav at charter.net>
> To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <list at tsgserver.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 8:51 AM
> Subject: Re: TSGL: encryption question
>
>
> The forums seem to show the same question asked, but no direct answers.
> The kicker for me was the Microsoft site that warns, "NOTE: If you do
> not have access to a Recovery Agent's account with a valid recovery key,
> you cannot recover the data. There is no workaround in EFS." And since
> my niece reformatted her C: drive, that 40 digit key was lost. I'll
> report to her that the data is probably gone forever.
>
> Thank you to all who helped me with this problem. You furnished a lot of
> interesting reading. This List is such a fabulous resource!
>
> Craig
>
>
>
> Craig wrote:
> > I received this email from a family member,
> >
> > I have some protected files (mainly my pictures and home videos) on my
> > external hard drive, then I had to reformat my hard drive but I forgot
> > to unprotect these files on my external.  Now I can't open these files.
> > How can I unprotect them?  I know there has to be a way! it's on a usb,
> > it's a seagate. I just used the regular windows protection. for
> > instance, many of the files are .jpg, so I right click on the file, then
> > properties, then I click attributes: advanced, then encrypt contents to
> > secure data. sometimes I have access to the details button which shows
> > who has access to the file. my old computer name and certificate are
> > listed from before the reformat. now my certificate is a totally
> > different number (I checked). anyway, what can I do? all of emma's
> > beautiful pictures are frozen!
> >
> >
> > Am I right by telling her that they are lost? It's XPSP2
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> > http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
> >
> >
> >
>
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