Sorry Alice, but we need that private key…
UK Data Encryption Disclosure Law Takes Effect – pcworld.com: British law enforcement gained new powers on Monday to compel individuals and businesses to decrypt data wanted by authorities for investigations.
British civilians just lost even more of their civil liberties, but who cares… wait, I live in London, crap!
The measure is in the third part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), legislation passed in 2000 by the U.K. Parliament to give law enforcement new investigation powers with respect to evolving communication technologies.
The government contends law enforcement more frequently encounters encrypted data, which delays investigations. But RIPA Part III wasn’t activated when the act was passed due to the less prevalent use of encryption.
But as of Monday, those served with a “Section 49” notice have to either make decryption keys available or put the data in an intelligible form for authorities. Failure to comply could mean a prison sentence of up to two years for cases not involving national security or five years for those that do.
That’s why I like using Truecrypt. You have plausable denyability. If you’re forced to give your key away, it can show them some stuff but not everything you have encrypted so they think they have unlocked everything but you still have more information encrypted with another key. It’s virtually impossible to know how much information is encrypted unless you’re forced to give away your key.
Shit…. what happens if you forget your key? I am always forgetting my passwords these days….
… that’s nice thing about living in a country without a bill of rights or constitution…. when you are fighting against those evil terrorists (often masquerading on the London underground as Brazilians) the government doesn’t have to worry about curtailing your rights (as you never really had any to begin with….)
Is it too late to have our own little tea party here?
I’m glad Britain was on the winning side in WW2. Just imagine what day-to-day life for the common man would have been like if the Nazis had won.
I know about Godwin’s Law. So what? It doesn’t make the comment inappropriate.
If you are hiding something with encryption it is probably a good bet that the encrypted information would get you in more trouble than not giving the government the keys. Morans!
…is my sarcasm detector broken or did I just see the classic “I have nothing to hide” fallacy rear its ugly head?
$4, that’s not true. I work for a company that allows me to work from home. So I have to carry business related confidential information from home to work frequently. That information MUST be encrypted in case the device gets stolen or lost.
Even when data security is not a corporate concern (the loss of which could spawn lawsuits), have you ever looked through your documents, financial data, and email, and then asked yourself “What if my home were burglarized and the thief had plenty of time to look through all my data at his leisure? It’s a very creepy thought that makes you realize just how important basic privacy really is.
#3. Cinaedh Just imagine what day-to-day life for the common man would have been like if the Nazis had won.
I know it would be horrible! Could you imagine: no privacy, cameras everywhere, police with the right to detain to people for months without trial or without telling the person why they are being detained for ….
…. what were we talking about again?
#3, early onset Goodwinism.
#9 – Which #3 readily admits, and properly spells 🙂
#8 – Ben… Nicely stated… The pathway to a totalitarian state that the US and the UK are taking is like the metaphor of the frog and the boiling water… where you put the frog (society) in the boiling water and it reflexively jumps out but if you put the frog in room temperature water and bring it to a boil, the frog just cooks…
My country feels like its just sitting in a pot and cooking, and my only hope is to save enough money between now and true fascism to be able to escape to Amsterdam.
By the way, the boiling frog thing is a myth… frogs will jump out as the water heats… but it works as a metaphor because societies don’t appear to be as smart as frogs.
The crime being punished is ‘refusal to provide information’ and has nothing to do with the contents of the data.
In the United States a person can not be compelled to provide testimony against himself, and claiming the 5th amendment of the Constitution’s “Right against self incrimination” might be a way around the court requiring this type of information. If the information in the encrypted drive might incriminate me, they really can’t force me to provide that information. They can obtain it themselves through their own investigation, but they can’t force me to provide it. At least as “Habeas Corpus” remains in existence for American citizens, something that is heavily under attack by so-called ‘conservatives’, but that is a different story.
Do any of the programs have a “self destruct” password option? If I use a certain password, the data can no longer be decrypted even with the real password.
Do any of the programs have a “hardware double key”, where if the data is copied to a different piece of hardware, with a different ‘thumbprint’, then it can no longer be decrypted. You need your password to decrypt the password that the hardware signature is based on.
Just out of not-so-idle curiosity, suppose you don’t live in the UK – I don’t, suppose your encryption key provider is headquartered in South Africa – mine is – but, they have a division in the UK.
I wonder if the Brits can then force the UK division to fork over your key? Even more likely, would/could the Brits try to force the UK division to roll over at the behest of the US Dept. of Homeland Insecurity?
10. May not work for a frog….but works great for a lobster. Tastes better too!
So #4, what is a “moran?”
#14, Improbus, You are so right. If you are truly hiding terrorist info, simply refuse to give the key.
#14, Jennifer, a moran is how a protester spelled moron on their protest sign (a past Dvorak blog article). It kind of caught on with the regulars here.
Oops, that should be #4, Improbus…
#15, And don’t forget the agreed upon plural – Morani.
The original picture is here:
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/n/U/moran.jpg
Hmm.. When will the Brittish start wearing those V for Vendetta masks?
#17, LOL, and they all live in Moroni. (the capital of Comoros, on the island of Grande Comore; pop. 22,000.)
My apologies to all Moronians. 🙂
Keep voting Labour Gasparrini. 🙂
Sometimes it’s nice having laws and legalisms written down somewhere. Not that they always get followed, just nice to know they are there and if things were perfect they would mean something.
#21 – Why would I vote for Labour? To tell you the truth I’m creeped out by both parties, but just a tiny bit less so by the Tories. However, the political scene here seems to have diluted so much that both parties seem to be the same.
This is another one of them laws that’s unequally applied to the poor and middle class, but not the rich, and well connected. Anyone running a small business is now subject to UK government approved industrial espionage. And anything gleaned from their records, could end up as the intellectual property of far bigger businesses. Ones that UK gov. has ties to. Do you really think that Echelon is only used to spy on the bad guys. The French don’t think so. And maybe they’re not so paranoid as we’re lead to believe they are.