The FBI served a search warrant to Microsoft in early 2025 to recover the encryption keys on three laptops, with the company complying to allow the agency to access the data on the devices that it otherwise would have been unable to read. According to Forbes, Microsoft spokesperson Charles Chamberlayne said that it receives around 20 requests for BitLocker keys annually, but most of them fail because the user did not store their recovery key in the cloud.
Although there have been many requests through the years, with one Microsoft engineer even claiming that the U.S. government approached him way back in 2013 to install a backdoor in the encryption system (which he declined), this is the first recorded instance where the tech company complied and resulted in a breakthrough for the government.
