UK Ruling Says Authorities Can Force You To Hand Over Your Encryption Key
from the self-incrimination-means-different-things-across-the-pond dept
A year ago, there was a legal ruling in the US that said an individual could not be forced to hand over their encryption key to encrypted data on a computer, since it violates the 5th amendment against self-incrimination. Over in the UK, they apparently also have protections against self-incrimination, but apparently it doesn't cover handing over your encryption key (thanks to JJ for sending over the link). Basically, the ruling is pretty close to the opposite of the US ruling. Basically, it found that an encryption key isn't speech but an independent "thing" that can be required to be turned over to authorities.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: encryption, free speech, self-incrimination, uk, us
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If you hold to all of that your defense need not even be a lie.
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LOOK OUT (it's commin' this way)
VOTE McCain 2008 - He wont steal Joe the plumbers dream.
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and NEVER put that url in your history but just rember the name of the company..
and like you said use DONT ASK DONT TELL
and then format your comp before your trip
and image it when you git to where you are going or when you git back...
boom issue solved :D
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Add a self-destruct key.
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I can see doing what you're talking about with a few sensitive folders/directories, though - send them to the online service, delete them from your hard drive, and use any of the "wipe free space" utilities on your hard drive. Then when you get where you're going, download the files from the service if you need them.
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Re: LOOK OUT (it's commin' this way)
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actuly you could have a home NAS converted to use FTP
and just access your backups like ppl should already be doing..
but like you said the cost per gig if you are on a meaterd connection would be the constraint
pluss if you have your own FTP server then you dont have to pay for online storage :D
the good thing is thair are solushions to the issue :D
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Re: Re: LOOK OUT (it's commin' this way)
Obama has horrable judgement...
and will cost 50 billion more then McCaine
im voteing nader BTW i caint stand McBush or the Retard Obama
ide prefer not to vote but aglest if i vote nader i can say
the resulting mess wasent my fault...
Mccaine isent much bedder with his your own your own and im gunna tax your healthcare attatude...
thay are both jackasses whu are gunna screw us of our rights and our money...
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Re: LOOK OUT (it's commin' this way)
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#6 "self destruct" won't work
The best option (apart from never having anything on your drive they'd want to look at) is a hidden volume. That and not living in a country that thinks 'waterboarding' is an acceptable interrogation technique.
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Re: Re: Re: LOOK OUT (it's commin' this way)
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Political Rhetoric==Bullshit
McCain has a political "wild" streak that seems very much calculated and has gone against his constituents wishes on several matters, which is not what I want to see in a president of mine.
So basically we are being forced to choose between a man who blindly follows the lead of his fellow party members and a man who has lost touch with the people he represents. A man who only promises a changing of the guard or a man who will be hamstrung by his association with the current president.
If it were just that I wouldn't vote. But, it seems that the press seems to adore Obama and hates McCain with a passion. That makes my decision easy. They call themselves the voice of the people, yet they try to silence those whose words are contrary to theirs. Screw the press. I guess I'm voting for McCain.
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On topic, the question this raises is interesting. The police have the power to enter your home and search it for evidence if you're suspected of a crime, but they don't have the power to enter your brain and do the same. The question is, which one does your computer fall under? Is your encryption key like your front door key, or does the fact it's the only means of getting access (as opposed to breaking down the door) change that? Tough question; I can see it from both points of view.
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what are they going to do?
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RE: what are they going to do?
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Flawed logic all around
The Appeal Court judgement is like the plot from a bad spy movie. The baddie, upon capturing our hero, demands the secret codeword necessary for world domination. A codeword written down nowhere and known only to our hero. The baddie then tells our hero that, if he doesn’t divulged the codeword, he’ll kill him, thus guaranteeing the failure of his world-domination plans by his own hand.
As killing the defendant isn’t an option, as that would just show that the encryption key is very much dependant on the defendant’s existence, I’m surprised that the Appeal Court didn’t suggest torture. This seems like the perfect use for torture. The problem with the Guantanamo style of torture is that the defendants will say anything, truth or falsehood, to make the torture stop, and you have no way of verifying the truthfulness of what’s been said. As the state already has the ciphertext, if your tortured defendant lies about the encryption algorithm or key, the state will know and can carry on the torture. If the defendant truly doesn’t know the key, the torturing will eventually kill them. Once they are dead, you will know they were innocent.
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Re: Re: Re: LOOK OUT (it's commin' this way)
You do realize that NeoConBushSupporter is a satirical troll, right?
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The guilty won't care...
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Re: Flawed logic all around
> forgotten it”, it doesn’t work like that. You’ve failed to hand
> over the encryption key or plaintext equivalent of the
> encrypted material. That’s prima facie evidence that you
> have committed a crime. The prosecution doesn’t have to
> prove you have not forgotten it.
Perhaps in the UK that's true but in America, the Constitution sets the burden of proof on the government and no law or court ruling can trump that.
If a similar law passes here, it will still be the government's burden to prove you're lying about forgetting the password, not the other way around.
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and just access your backups like ppl should already be doing..
no, no, no, ftp is a plain text protocol. why go to all the trouble of wiping your hard drive just to pass your data thru the internet in the clear?
even if you encrypt the data prior to transmission, the clear text protocol will reveal it as an encrypted file.
use only encrypted protocols like SFTP or SCP. on the wire they look just like ssh sessions, since that it really what they are, FTP tunneled via ssh.
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Encryption
Use a live linux CD.
Puppy linux
Slax
Knoppix Many distros out there with plenty of utilities and a nice firefox browser built right in and runs right from the CD/DVD
Encrypt your stuff them mail it to your self.
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Re: Add a self-destruct key.
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Scholarship
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