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).

Comments

Wrong Agency

[b4upoo]

The FBI has never been a leader in computer technology. Other agencies such as NSA can probably crack that encryption with ease if not instantaneously.
              I have often wondered if these encryption programs were not let lose by our government so that they would always be able to examine file contents.
              As far as I know only a program that uses a one time pad is truly secure and I feel that even that would be suspect unless one took the time to create his own pad.

Re:Maybe it was just random data

[NNKK]

Innocent until Proven Guilty. If they cannot prove you guilty they cannot hold you indefinitely.

Awww, you're so naïve it's adorable.

An off-topic question

[Cassander]

From what I've heard, The Netherlands seems like one of the sanest countries around. How necessary is it to speak Dutch to live there? Could an english-speaking american ex-pat get by ok?

I don't want to leave my home country but if it keeps marching toward Christian Police State I would like a backup plan.