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

Sun Mar 9 13:44:29 EDT 2008

Justin
YOU JUST GO GUY!!! 
Thank you
Toni

"Don't worry about things in the past, there is nothing you can  do about 
them now.
Don't worry about things that are happening now, make the  best of a bad 
situation.
Don't worry about things in the future, they may  never happen"

In a message dated 3/9/2008 5:26:08 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
justin at whisperer.com.au writes:

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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> 10:14  AM
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