The issue focused on software technologies that Microsoft engineers use to store digital files in Windows machines. In particular, Microsoft engineers used advanced algorithms and techniques to secure machine passwords for computers running Windows XP.

According to Computerworld's technology expert Adam Steinberg, computer hackers could copy machine passwords from servers using malware software such as Shadowrun or Power Crawler. Microsoft systems also included automated computers that performed computations when PCs started up. Microsoft researchers thought they had implemented these measures so computer technicians would not know about them.