81–90 of 284 posts
I think, importantly and regardless of the crime itself, I would like to ask: what can be done here and how did we get to this point? We have someone who has been in prison indefinitely who hasn't been charged with anything. What can be done about this situation even if we raise awareness? Also, how did we get to the point where this is legal?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are several misconceptions in this comment, first and foremost that SHA is encryption, which it is not. It is a hashing algorithm, not unlike MD5, though "stronger". Secondly, when you have two files that are exactly the same and encrypt both with the same key, method and parameters then both will have the same hash. ( Though I could imagine Apple doing stuff with padding, and other parameters to make this not…
Right... so for the authorities to "compare" the hash of an encrypted file with that of a known original, they would need to encrypt the original with the same private key used to encrypt the encrypted file. If they had that private key, wouldn't it be sufficient to unlock the drive? They wouldn't need his cooperation to decrypt the drive if they had a private key. So it seems like a catch-22 compelling him to decryp…
"Investigators said content stored on the encrypted hard drive matched file hashes for known child pornography content."
I read it like this: They figured out that the disk had some incriminating files, as I described in another comment of this thread. To make this work hashes are of no use, they need the original files. For various reasons they might not want to admit that they are in possession of the original files, hence the cryptic and vague phrasing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hashes might not fall under being "beyond reasonable doubt" - I'd be interested to see the legal history, if any, of them being used in convictions. There'll always be the argument of the pigeonhole principle. On a similar note, I wonder if this will spur interest in a kind of file-doping program to confuse hashes of drive contents. A few pixels won't make a difference if you're planning on just viewing some images.
I wonder if the same kind of error-tolerant fingerprinting used in technology like Shazam (recognizing songs from ambient recordings) could be generalized to combat such a doping program. You might have to do more than change a few pixels here and a unicode character or meta tag there. I even suspect things like color grading and, say, something like batching multiple images or text files together into one file, coul…
They usually aren't using SHA (maybe they are in this specific case).
I think, importantly and regardless of the crime itself, I would like to ask: what can be done here and how did we get to this point? We have someone who has been in prison indefinitely who hasn't been charged with anything. What can be done about this situation even if we raise awareness? Also, how did we get to the point where this is legal?
Can someone explain to me how it's possible to check file hashes in encrypted drive?
> Investigators said content stored on the encrypted hard drive matched file hashes for known child pornography content. Can someone explain to me how it's possible to check file hashes in encrypted drive?
There's a better article in Ars: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/man-jailed-indef... From that article: > The court also noted that the authorities "found [on the Mac Book Pro] one image depicting a pubescent girl in a sexually suggestive position and logs that suggested the user had visited groups with titles common in child exploitation." They also said the man's sister had "reported" that her brother s…
> "The fact remains that the government has not brought charges," Donoghue said in a telephone interview. "Our client has now been in custody for almost 18 months based on his assertion of his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination." To be clear (and I am pretty sure the public defender knows this, but is just phrasing it like this for public perception), the prosecution's position is that the Fif…
Note the "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" telling him to decrypt that hard drive is still in effect forcing him to be a witness against himself.
These judges saying the fifth amendment doesn't apply should be sued for constitutional violations.
One potential option: 1. Install a hardware keylogger (software keylogger wouldn't work) in the laptop. 2. Release the defendant. 3. Get a warrant for the arrest of the defendant for CP-related crime. 4. Decrypt the laptop with the password recovered from the keylogger. All of this depends on the suspect using the laptop again, but I'm guessing they'd want to recover the contents on the laptop.
lol why not just call him and say "hello, this is Steve Jobs from Apple, you have won $100M for being a loyal Apple user. All you need to do to get the prize is unlock your Mac to prove it is yours"
* Detaining this individual indefinitely without charge.
* Charge based on limited anecdotal evidence.
* Release without charge.
Can you think of other suggestions? Which of the available options do you think is best? Best being a balance between the rights of the individual and the laws of the state.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something doesn't add up in this story. Encryption and hashing are different processes with different algorithms - SHA vs MD5. For example, IPSec VPNs hash a packet with MD5 to prevent tampering, then encrypt the hash with SHA256 to prevent viewing. (Because the message could be modified while encrypted, were it not also hashed.) Isn't the point of encryption that it doesn't create a reliable hash - that 2 identical…
I would assume they have evidence, maybe via a warrant to his ISP, that showed the transfer of files with hashes of known illegal content. They might have evidence content was transferred to a computer on an account in his name, but they most likely do not have evidence of his actual possession of illegal content.
I think, importantly and regardless of the crime itself, I would like to ask: what can be done here and how did we get to this point? We have someone who has been in prison indefinitely who hasn't been charged with anything. What can be done about this situation even if we raise awareness? Also, how did we get to the point where this is legal?
Has he been charged with contempt?