please help with lost-key encrypted files!

[Scorpiontico]

guys i fresh installed everything on my t43, i did not decrypt encrypted files before formating the HD, also i think i erased the keys by the bios...
how could i recover these files (actually decrypt because i sitll have the files), they are very important family pictures... please!!!

thanks.

[Ground Loop]

If you used the IBM ESS Security System to encrypt the files, you will need the Key backup files to restore the hardware key & admin key to the device.

You did copy the "backup" key files somewhere safe, right?

If not, you're totally out of luck. At least, that's the idea, right? If there was some way for you to get your "family pictures" back without the keys or key backups, then it wouldn't be much security at all.

[skanky]

if its windows encryption and you've not backed up the decrpytion keys then i think you might be SOL as thats the one thing that microsoft have made thats virtually indestructable.

i'm probably wrong about that and someone will be along to correct me shortly

[motodude]

I'm just curious but why would you want to encrypt family photos. I know I have some "family" members who would make a train take a dirt road, but I usually succeed in shooting around them.

[Kenn]

Same thing happened to me. If it's encrypted from Windows, there's not much you can do. I lost a lot of files that way as well.

For next time, always remember to export your EFS (Encryped File System) certificate via IE whenever you format your machine.

[Scorpiontico]

I'm just curious but why would you want to encrypt family photos. I know I have some "family" members who would make a train take a dirt road, but I usually succeed in shooting around them.

dude, i guess i consider them as very private stuff... a curios girlfriend for instance.

thanks for the replies, i see i messed up, hopefully my sis has her backup.

[egibbs]

If your sister doesn't have a backup, if you wait about 10 years cracking the encryption should be easily done.

I know that sounds snide, but it's not. Copy the encrypted files off to some safe media that will still be readable 10 years from now. Then wait for faster computers and better algorithms.

When you finally get them back, it will be like opening a time capsule.

Ed Gibbs

[Ground Loop]

If the AES encryption and default key lengths from IBM's Security software can be broken in 10 years, something is very wrong or gigantic unexpected advances in factoring have been discovered.

I'm not being snide -- in 10 years, this encryption should still be standing strong. Most files encrypted with state-of-the-art consumer software 10 years ago (PGP/IDEA) are just as untouchable today.

[zeus1q]

Well, all you really need do is show a reduction from nondeterministically polynomial to polynomial and you're in business

[egibbs]

I believe the IBM CSS Software uses MD5/SHA-1 for some functions, and these are already known to be breakable. Depending on exactly how they are plumbed into the IBM encryption algorithm, the CSS encryption may not last 3 years.

As far as 10 year old PGP encrypted files still being secure, that would depend on the key length used. Files encrypted with 4096 bit keys are probably still safe. But most people 10 years ago were using 56 bit or 128 bit keys. I don't think anyone would consider a file crypted with a 56 bit key to be secure today.

Not to mention the small but significant number of holes that were found in PGP over the last 10 year and patched.

Ed Gibbs

[cerebral_mamba]

Besides the computing power being increasing logarithmically, we will have made much more advances in the comming 10 years than the previous 10.

[padpad]

Just say OMG I lost it! Like sth you lost in a fire.

And forget all about it...