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FBI Failed To Break Encryption of Hard Drives
benoliver writes to let us know that the FBI has failed to decrypt files of a Brazilian banker accused of financial crimes by Brazilian law enforcement, after a year of attempts. Five hard drives were seized by federal police at the apartment of banker Daniel Dantas, in Rio de Janeiro, during Operation Satyagraha in July 2008. (The link is to a Google translation of the original article in Portuguese.) The article in English mentions two encryption programs, one Truecrypt and the other unnamed. 256-bit AES was used, and apparently both the Brazilian police and the FBI tried dictionary attacks against it. No Brazilian law exists to force Dantas to produce the password(s).
Just because you're paranoid does NOT mean that no one's out to get you.
And you KNOW the government is out to get you.
No, AES has been independently vetted and attacked by multiple security organizations. The only flaws that have been discovered in the algorithm are minor and inconsequential. The NSA is a double-edged sword - they help with useful security tools such as SELinux as well as their traditional spook espionage. The NSA can't crack AES even with a supercomputer (right now, and only if the user has a decent password and/or 2-factor authentication).
Not without violating the 5th amendment. If you can get the key via keylogger or malware it's fair game, otherwise they have to willingly provide it or you've got to crack it. But the constitution as it stands, does not allow the authorities to compel a suspect to produce the files.
That's not offtopic. If they want the info bad enough, that is what they will do. And nobody will be able to prove a damn thing.
In Brazil, proofs produced by illegal means cannot be used (Federal Constitution, Art. 5, Inc. LVI).
Also, commiting a crime in order to produce proofs is aggravated up to a 1/3 (Decree-Law 2.848, Art. 342, Par. 1).