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UK Court Rejects Encryption Key Disclosure Defense
truthsearch writes "Defendants can't deny police an encryption key because of fears the data it unlocks will incriminate them, a British appeals court has ruled. The case marked an interesting challenge to the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which in part compels someone served under the act to divulge an encryption key used to scramble data on a PC's hard drive. The appeals court heard a case in which two suspects refused to give up encryption keys, arguing that disclosure was incompatible with the privilege against self incrimination. In its ruling, the appeals court said an encryption key is no different than a physical key and exists separately from a person's will."
Hey ho
...I really don't want to visit Britain anymore. I read a while back about mandatory biometric scanning of tourists and from there it just gets progressively worse. Shame too since it really seems like a nice place to visit in terms of history. Oh well...
I would suggest employing >i>steganography, instead.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
Reminds me of this failed pick-up scenario:
guy: Hey baby, what's your phone number?
girl: It's in the phone book, look it up!
guy: But I don't know your name.
girl: That's in the phone book too.
Tsk. I would suggest to you employing the Preview feature to ferret out HTML errors.
> Why is your encryption key any different from the safe/door you have?
It isn't. I'll just stand back and watch them break my 256-bit AES...
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.8
hQEOA8MMd15mSaRoEAQA7v49OwHzXQ0vbzGru17meXPx0j0azurW1eypb4Ene8n3
FUCK YOU
tMOLJhDfAdJgYZPOhJZeMPqqtyBanLIOtrzHP8S2dxfh6WAiiCPHFymvFtK7S4g4
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
I wonder if it's illegal now to just forget. "I'd love to help you officer, but I guess I just forgot it!"
IIRC, that's been the case since the RIPA was first proposed. If the police come knocking and say "Give us the key", the burden of proof is on you to be able to show that you can't. (How on Earth you're meant to prove that you can't give them something like that is your problem).
Failure to give them the key can lead to 3 years in prison. There was also talk of a proposal whereby if you discuss the order to hand over the key with anyone, you can get 5 years in prison.
(All of this is based on several-year-old memories from articles in The Register, YMMV, IANAL, OMGWTFBBQ).
I'd just say the password is "the name of the second gunman on the grassy knoll". When the agent instantly types, you know there was one.
oh, that's right. It's actually the name of the town where Elvis is under witness protection...
Can I interpret that as being a valid defense if my encryption keys are all derived from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0..
They're complementary. Help yourself.
Well if I lived in the UK, and they demanded access to my encrypted data, rather than surrender the key I'd just use my gun to protect myself from arrest.
Oh wait. They took our guns too.
Looks like I'll be spending the next year in jail.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
You seem to grossly miss a point: a password might easily be really forgotten. Ever happened to you?
nope, because 'biscuit123' is really easy to remember, and totally secure, because letters and numbers == strong, plus no-one would ever think of it.
See, some of us have the clevers.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
... my encryption key consists of a complete confession of my latest crime plus GPS coordinates of where I've buried the evidence. I'd definitely be incriminating myself by divulging it, so I won't.
Now that's a good idea.
Evildoer:"my password your honour? you're asking for my password?"
Judge: " Yes, give me your password now!"
Evildoer: "ok, the judge can suck my cock, all lower case."
Judge: " What? I'm going to throw you in jail for contempt!"
Evildoer: " No that's my passphrase, then the second one is " The faggot judge likes to lick prisioners underwear, with a capitol T on the."
Judge: " How dare you!...."
Evildoer: " you want my email passphrases too?"
If you think you're ever going to jail, make the passphrases something that will be your own version of shock and awe in the courtroom.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I prefer a password of "I'm sorry, I can't remember it!".
So when the cops ask, I can tell them.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Maybe the situation here is more dire in the UK, but I don't think your claim holds true for the US (and, absent statistics, it makes me doubt that it holds true for the UK):
Ah, but he said "falling" vending machines.
That would not be classified as a vending machine fatality, but rather an industrial freight fatality. The real statistics are hidden.
I blame the labour party : )
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
It's probably the extremely rare case where encryption keys kill people.
It was ncrypted in RSA-512 or something that level, and then they reported the minister to the police, saying he was in touch with criminals (that word had not been replaced by "terrorists" yet). He evidently could NOT prouce the key, and the law was scrapped
It looks like you're having some trouble proucing the keys yourself.