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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."
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.
> 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.
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..
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
It's probably the extremely rare case where encryption keys kill people.