Windows Genuine Advantage Authentication: Sneaky or Necessary?

Microsoft’s Windows authentication "Genuine Advantage 1.0" went live about two weeks ago and has experienced a rocky start - the authentication system was cracked a few days after the service was launched and analysts criticized Microsoft to violate security and privacy standards - time to take a step back an have a closer look at what the authentication is all about.

Using not quite legally purchased Windows software on the home computer and selling not quite legal versions of the operating system into dubious channels is getting more complicated with every new security feature Microsoft introduces. The next step in this strategy is Windows Genuine Advantage 1.0 (WGA), a mechanism that creates a unique system ID that depends on hardware components in a computer. Every key is transferred to Microsoft and stored on the device itself and accessed to verify a computer when a user wants to access updates (excluding security updates).

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