VeraCrypt developer claims that Microsoft has terminated his account

[harlan4096]

VeraCrypt is a popular cross-platform encryption software that is available for Windows, Linux and macOS. It is one of the successors of TrueCrypt and can be used to encrypt hard drives, including system drives, and to create data containers on drive that are encrypted.

The developer of the application, Mounir Idrassi, published a project update on Sourceforge a few days ago. There, he explained why the project had been silent for the past few months.

According to his description, Microsoft terminated the account that he used to sign Windows drivers and the bootloader. This affects the Windows version of the encryption software, as updates can’t be signed anymore because of this. The Linux and macOS versions of the software are not affected by this.

To make matters worse, a screenshot with a message by Microsoft suggests that an appeal is not available. It is unclear what that means for the project. While a solution may be found eventually, likely through enough outside pressure to get a Microsoft representative to look at the case, it is certainly problematic when a company that operates its own encryption software — Microsoft with BitLocker — is blocking a competitor from releasing updates for his.

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