Court allows Defendant to keep his hard drive encrypted

Mishra

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html?hhTest=1

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Comments

hypnotoad

Good. I think it's BS that they search (and can hold) your laptop, phone, ipod etc in customs anyway. There is no reason they should, nor do I have faith that customs agents can effectively manage the plethora of laptops, operating systems, and data that come in.

undomiel

That's why it is fun to give them cryptic operating systems to boot into.

I'm still a bit on the fence for whether I consider it lawful for them to be able to search my computer or not. I can see arguments for both sides, though I tend to lean more towards the privacy side of things.

dynamik

Too bad the guy's clearly got kiddie p0rn in this case. I wish they'd get rid of this all together: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/90325 Scary stuff.

TechJunky

Can someone confirm who uses PGP that you cant actually access the data using linux? Most encrpyted disks I have been able to get around using linux and some tools. Is this not the case with PGP?

Just curious.

dynamik

I'm not sure about PGP, but TrueCrypt offers full-drive encryption. I'm sure there are tools to go about cracking either. Unless there's some vulnerability, the amount of protection will depend on the strength of his password.

HeroPsycho

dynamik wrote:

Too bad the guy's clearly got kiddie p0rn in this case. I wish they'd get rid of this all together: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/90325 Scary stuff.

Unfortunately, that's often how this kind of thing has come about to secure freedoms. See Miranda v. Arizona as a reference. Miranda was eventually convicted with new evidence that made his confession unnecessary.

Sorry, had a former history teacher moment...

dynamik

I actually knew that. I'm taking an intro law class right now.

I guess I'm more concerned about the searches in general. If I ever travel outside the country again, I'm going to be really hesitant to take anything like a laptop, iPod, cell phone with me just because they can be taken and held for no reason whatsoever.

I think this was the link I meant to post earlier: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html

I'm not a fan of what we're doing at our borders. It looks like you can find yourself in some pretty hot water simply because of countries you've visited: http://www.alternet.org/rights/95351

Kaminsky

If there is good evidence to suggest they me have incriminating evidence on the laptop / computer system then then it should be just like a normal search warrant to get at it. Especially what they suspected he was trafficking - string em all up I say. Hopefully the judge that issued the initial subpoena felt there was compelling evidence to suggest so. There are plenty of clever people in computer forensics that have the tools, knowledge and skills that could have bypassed that security so it's confusing they didn't use that route.

However, the ability to just take anyone's laptop and do with it what they will is bordering on paranoia and from the outside, looks terrible. I'm from the UK and hear lots of stories of friends and colleagues visiting the states for holidays or training courses and every one of them tell of some form of over the top harrassment when entering the country. (One of them was 65 on a short weekender with his wife to new york and was severely verbally brutalised when all he said was "You what? What on earth do you want my shoes for?" ... That was it .. they were on him like a pack of dogs apparantly ending up with his shoes being thrown back in his face - outragous ! )

I can well understand the need for very tight controls (I was due to be in London that morning but something else came up) but surely it has to be tempered with a "reasonable" presumption of guilt before hammer time.

Completely immature.