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Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

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Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, it's very common for forensics teams to get memory dumps before the computers are turned off or moved.

Why dump memory when you can do this instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erq4TO_a3z8

For chain of custody etc. you always need to make a master copy and sign/hash it and then work off of a copy. If you tried to do forensics on the actual computer as seized you'd be busy destroying disk & memory evidence as you worked.

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#122
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what the courts would say when told that it is possible to have a hidden inner volume that is impossible to detect and when I hand over my key it may just be the outer containers, not the hidden inner container that I have unlocked.

The best way to hide something is with misdirection and dead ends. It's by letting someone win a little but not all the way. If you're a straight male just make a second inner hidden volume and put a ton of gay porn on it. After a few days of arguing with the court just reveal your password to it and they'll think "oh shit, this is what he was hiding. Well nothing to see here, moving on. That's all."

genius.

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why dump memory when you can do this instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erq4TO_a3z8

For chain of custody etc. you always need to make a master copy and sign/hash it and then work off of a copy. If you tried to do forensics on the actual computer as seized you'd be busy destroying disk & memory evidence as you worked.

That is fine for working on it (and having taken computer forensics classes at college something I am intimately familiar with), however it no longer needs to be done on location. The device can safely be removed without requiring a tech to go out to the location.

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#124
post #62
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem here is what are they going to find that ISN'T Illegal? This isn't really a problem. Cops can get a warrant to search your house, and I'm pretty sure they'll find some things that aren't illegal, but are very personal. If you restrict evidence finding procedure to those in which only evidence (and nothing else) can be found, then I'm pretty sure you'll end up with no evidence.

do people here honestly believe that its not okay for cops with warrants to search someone's encrypted hard drive because they might find something that's not illegal?

It is never okay for my privacy to be compromised. I don't care if they have a piece of paper that says that I'm not supposed to care.

This has nothing to do with things that may or may not be "illegal".

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#126
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shorter Version: It does not matter whether the government forces you to do something (e.g. open a combination lock), as opposed to providing information (e.g. tell them the combination). The deciding factor is whether there is an invasion of your mental privacy inherent in the government compulsion. Whether you disclose the combination or open the lock yourself, the contents of your mind are being used to incriminat…

In other words if my password is "I am guilty" I can invoke the 5th and tell the grand jury that I will not tell them my password . However, when the grand jury says "produce the crooked accounting books we know you have (witnesses have testified that you have them) that are stores on your laptop", am I required to somehow produce them or do I just say "nope, not going to happen." In the latter case, if those books a…

isnt the simple point of the 5th supposed to be more or,ess "you do cannot be compelled bylaw to help convict yourself)... ay law to the contrary would be unconstitutional.

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#127
post #60

I wonder about this: What if the key to the encryption is written on a dozen seemingly random notes on yellow sticky notes in your office full of yellow sticky notes? Or, it is composed of the last letter on each page of a series of innocuous looking documents, such that the government might seize the documents but naturally in the process of doing so, scramble the documents order rendering the password irretrievable…

Sure. You could do even better: keep your computer on at all times and keep everything you do in RAM. No encryption is necessary here, just a $100 UPS and your laptop's own battery. The problem with all these comments about "what if I give half of my phrase to a friend?" or "what if I write it in the dust at the entrance to my house and the FBI wipes it away when they bust in?" is that it doesn't really address the c…

The solution - an online storage system that only you know about. As long as they don't get a RAM dump, you're fine.

The problem with an encrypted drive is that they know it's there.

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#128

What if you made your passphrase itself a confession to a crime? "I shot the sheriff." Then you could claim that supplying your password would constitute self-incrimination, and so you'd like to invoke your 5th Amendment rights :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words if my password is "I am guilty" I can invoke the 5th and tell the grand jury that I will not tell them my password . However, when the grand jury says "produce the crooked accounting books we know you have (witnesses have testified that you have them) that are stores on your laptop", am I required to somehow produce them or do I just say "nope, not going to happen." In the latter case, if those books a…

isnt the simple point of the 5th supposed to be more or,ess "you do cannot be compelled bylaw to help convict yourself)... ay law to the contrary would be unconstitutional.

No, the point of the 5th is that you cannot be compelled to give testimony against yourself (which is under oath and for which you will go to jail if you perjure yourself.) You are not protected from helping to convict yourself if you leave the evidence of your crimes available to the court. An encrypted drive is being considered as something like an un-crackable safe for which you have the combination; providing the password is not testifying, it is providing the court access to evidence that you would otherwise be concealing from a valid warrant.

Re: Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops

#130

You can be compelled to produce a physical key to a safe. However what if the contents of the safe are paper with text written in an invented language, known only to you? Can you be compelled to translate them for the court? What if they just contained numbers? Could you be forced to explain what the numbers mean? I would conclude that such an action would violate the 5th ammendment. Forcing her to decrypt the hard d…

The contents of the laptop are such that they exhibit a high level of entropy. By definition, they are not information.

uh, the bits of a compressed file also exhibit a high level of entropy. Are compressed files not information either?

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