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The Encrypting File System: How Secure is It?

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The Encrypting File System: How Secure is It? (PDF, 1.60MB)Published: 02 Nov, 2001
Created by
Howard Wright

The Encrypting File System (EFS) is one of the many new features of the Windows 2000 operating system. It was designed to address security holes in NTFS. Namely, tools like NTFSDOS that allow attackers to bypass NTFS permissions. Microsoft states, 'The encryption technology used is public key-based and runs as an integrated system service making it easy to manage difficult to attack and transparent to the user.' (Encrypting File System 1). EFS does provide another layer of security but just how difficult is it to attack?