"Back doors are simply not acceptable," wrote Niels Ferguson, a developer and cryptographer at Microsoft, on his corporate blog last week. "Besides, [Microsoft] wouldn't find anybody on this team willing to implement and test the back door."

Ferguson was referring to the rumors that BitLocker Drive Encryption, the planned security feature for Windows Vista, encrypts data so successfully (to protect it if the computer is lost or stolen) that law enforcement agencies have sought Microsoft's assurance that they'll still be able to get access to data on seized computers.

"The suggestion is that we are working with governments to create a back door so that they can always access BitLocker-encrypted data," thundered Ferguson, who is a member of the Security Integrity Team at Microsoft. "Over my dead body," he stated bluntly.

Here's a fuller glimpse of Ferguson's post:

"Over my dead body.

Well, maybe not literally—I’m not ready to be a martyr quite yet—but certainly not in any product I work on. And I’m not alone in that sentiment. The official line from high up is that we do not create back doors. And in the unlikely situation that we are forced to by law we’ll either announce it publicly or withdraw the entire feature. Back doors are simply not acceptable. "