Password-recovery experts at Passware warned Friday that the security of Microsoft's Bitlocker whole-disk encryption is seriously compromised on a computer configured to use sleep mode. The same is true of the open-source TrueCrypt whole-disk encryption tool.

The company's Passware Kit Forensic 1.03 can "decrypt hard disks encrypted with BitLocker or TrueCrypt in a matter of minutes if the target computer is running".