Update to Windows Speech Recognition Defect

A few days ago I reported that Microsoft admitted to speech recognition defects in Windows Vista. This could very well cause some major security problems for users. It now seems there may be a quick fix for this problem.

Speech Recognition screen shot. (view large image)

Rob Chambers, who works on Microsoft's Windows Speech Recognition team, writes about how the secure screen saver in Vista now works with WSR and how it can prevent someone from walking by your computer and issuing SELECT ALL DELETE commands. This is something to keep in mind, especially for mobile professionals who travel frequently with their Tablet PC or UMPC. If you want to keep your Tablet safe then make sure to use your secure screen saver.

This means when the screen saver is running if the user says something that can be recognized by the OS, whatever they say is thrown away. If the screen saver is configured to be secure, that's the end of the story. The log on screen isn't even shown. That's because it wouldn't matter much if it did show the user the log on screen because currently (as of Windows Vista) the Windows Speech Recognition user experience doesn't run on the secure desktop (where the log on prompting happens).

Read More (Rob's Rhapsody)

Thanks to GottaBeMobile for the tip.