Campaigners (in UK) hit by decryption law

[TechBear_Seattle]

Campaigners hit by decryption law

Animal rights activists are thought to be the first Britons to be asked to hand over to the police keys to data encrypted on their computers.

The request for the keys is being made under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

Police analysing machines seized during raids on activists' homes carried out in May have asked for the keys.

The activists could face jail if they do not comply and snub a further formal request to hand over the keys.

The full article continues at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7102180.stm

How long until the US has a similar law? Or do we already, buried somewhere in the "Patriot" Act?

[Poll_Blind]

1. I'm pretty sure people who have refused to turn over keys have...

...been charged with contempt of court and also, if memory serves, destruction of evidence, hampering a police investigation. The inferrence being (and this is almost as old as the hills) that there does not necessarily need to be a law which specifically covers the situation--> If you frustrate the government's attempts to investigate you they will find something to charge you with and usually a judge will uphold it.

There is a small program I heard about, I can't recall the name now, which installs under Windows and which encrypts the entire hard drive, the OS hard drive, so that the only way one can get into it is to enter the correct passphrase at boot. The OS drive (and any others) remain encrypted the whole time with the OS basically using transparent middleware to see the encrypted data on the drive (which is decrypted to memory and run).

There are also solutions like BCCrypt, IIRC, which allow one to create a virtual encrypted volume and then mount it with same. It includes a dead-man switch of sorts in that it will automatically unmount after some period of time or if the user hits a panic button.

But, none of those things matter because you can be charged with a crime for merely having encrypted data on your machine. Sure, it could just be recipes. But if the government doesn't think so be prepared to have a very, very difficult time.

I would like encryption to be the rule, not the exception. Sadly, except for the security-conscious individual the only two non-corporate entities which have seemed to readily adopt cryptography have been organized crime and child pornographers. The revolution that Phil Zimmerman started with PGP was adopted by businesses and geeks but fizzled (for the most part) on all the other potential markets.