A (Terrifying) Traffic Analysis of Windows 10

[Evil Philanthropist]

Note: Some readers have commented that the original source for the article is of questionably validity. If anyone can confirm or refute the original author's finding with actual data, please let me know in the comments, and I'll update this post accordingly. Some Czech guy did a traffic analysis of data produced by Windows 10, and released his findings the other day. His primary thesis was that Windows 10 acts more like a terminal than an operating system -- because of the extent of the "cloud" integration, a large portion of the OS functions are almost dependent on remote (Microsoft's) servers. The amount of collected information, even with strict privacy settings, is quite alarming. Information transmitted: All text typed on the keyboard is stored in temporary files, and sent (once per 30 mins) to: oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net pre.footprintpredict.com reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com There isn't a clear purpose for this, considering there there's no autocorrect/prediction anywhere in the OS (There is autocorrect in certain text fields, but the supposed purpose for transmitting these keystrokes is to improve autocorrect across devices. Whether a full keylog is necessary for this (as opposed to just corrections) is questionable. Furthermore, this appears to still occur even if the user is not signed in to a Microsoft account, eliminating the "across devices" benefit. Perhaps there is a global autocorrect dictionary that benefits all users, but the privacy implications of an un-disableable always-on keylogger outweigh these potential benefits.). The implications of this are significant: because this is an OS-level keylogger, all the data you're trying to transmit securely is now sitting on some MS server. This includes passwords and encrypted chats. This also includes the on-screen keyboard, so there is no way to authenticate to a website without MS also getting your password. Telemetry is sent once per 5 minutes, to: vortex.data.microsoft.com vortex-win.data.microsoft.com telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net oca.telemetry.microsoft.com oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net You might think that "telemetry" has to do with OS usage or similar... turns out it's telemetry about the user. For example, typing a phone number anywhere into the Edge browser transmits it to the servers above. In another example, typing the name of any popular movie into your local file search starts a telemetry process that indexes all media files on your computer and transmits them to: df.telemetry.microsoft.com reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com cs1.wpc.v0cdn.net vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com pre.footprintpredict.com It's hard to imagine any purpose for this other than the obvious piracy crackdown possiblities. When a webcam is first enabled, ~35mb of data gets immediately transmitted to: oca.telemetry.microsoft.com oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com i1.services.social.microsoft.com i1.services.social.microsoft.com.nsatc.net Everything that is said into an enabled microphone is immediately transmitted to: oca.telemetry.microsoft.com oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com pre.footprintpredict.com i1.services.social.microsoft.com i1.services.social.microsoft.com.nsatc.net telemetry.appex.bing.net telemetry.urs.microsoft.com cs1.wpc.v0cdn.net statsfe1.ws.microsoft.com If this weren't bad enough, this behaviour still occurs after Cortana is fully disabled/uninstalled. It's speculated that the purpose of this function to build up a massive voice database, then tie those voices to identities, and eventually be able to identify anyone simply by picking up their voice, whether it be a microphone in a public place or a wiretap on a payphone. Interestingly, if Cortana is enabled, the voice is first transcribed to text, then the transcription is sent to: pre.footprintpredict.com reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com df.telemetry.microsoft.com If Windows is left unattended for ~15 mins, a large volume of traffic starts being transmitted to various servers. This may be the raw audio data, rather than just samples. Other concerns... While the inital reflex may be to block all of the above servers via HOSTS, it turns out this won't work: Microsoft has taken the care to hardcode certain IPs, meaning that there is no DNS lookup and no HOSTS consultation. However, if the above servers are blocked via HOSTS, Windows will pretend to be crippled by continuously throwing errors, while still maintaining data collection in the background. Other than an increase in errors, HOSTS blocking did not affect the volume, frequency, or rate of data being transmitted. ( via aeronet.cz ) " copied.

 

[Roddie]

And this is news. If you log onto the internet everything is logged, stored and used at the websites discretion. The latest site promise to store and protect your data just got hit. Many peoples credit cards were put on internet as well as life as they knew it is no longer. It is called internet. This has been this way since computers been out whether Windows or Mac. The easier you want your PC to operate the less privacy you have. The best you can do to protect yourself is start your own business on the farm and don't sell anything just go off the grid.

 

[BigFeet]

There is ZERO news here. Also, grammar would help if you want people to actually read your posts. Paragraphs are your friend. Wall O Text, is not.

And you want to know something, son? This will be implemented in to Windows 8.1 very soon.

 

[brianwall]

First off, learn how to type my friend! Secondly, you can't prove a negative so how to refute you concerns? I can't be bothered.

 

[jmccleary50]

The internet is the wild west where anything goes and everything is public. Wow! Who woulda thunk it?

 

[Tim Locke]

I will be interested to see what happens when there are an appreciable of W10 machines in use within hardened networks. Networks where there are hard filters in the firewall to only permit outgoing to certain sites and no others...and there are plenty of corporate networks like that ( and probably some government ones as well)
I wonder if W10 will start to throw up errors and cease to function. If so I bet that sites like Ars Technica will be all over that in seconds.