Police fail to hack paedos computer

[Dubai Blue]

This guy may well be a complete scumbag (he certainly sounds it) but i find it quite disturbing that it is now a criminal offence to withhold a password from the police. Very nanny-statish.

 

[malg]

This guy may well be a complete scumbag (he certainly sounds it) but i find it quite disturbing that it is now a criminal offence to withhold a password from the police. Very nanny-statish.

I agree with this totally. This is worrying, but because they've used the word 'paedophile' you can be absolutely sure that no one will get too excited about it for fear of being branded a paedo as well.

 

[BulgarianPride]

Absolutely not.

I also keep encrypted files on my computer for security purposes and there is absolutely no way that I'd give my password out to anyone either.

The law is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Where exactly was that philosophy in the latest arrest?

I hope he sues them and wins big.

If you are accused of being a pedophile, wouldn't you give your password to prove you are not?
But if you are, you wouldn't as they don't have a case against you, unless they have access to your PC.

 

[PSmyth07]

Actually, its quite within their rights if they use RIPA and can convict if you do not hand over the encryption key. (Even if you've forgot it)

 

[urmston]

As the passord is so long he could reasonably claim to have forgotten it.


People forget much shorter ones.

 

[Damocles]

26 * 2 = 52 - 2 = 50<br /><br />-- Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:58 pm --<br /><br />

Absolutely not.

I also keep encrypted files on my computer for security purposes and there is absolutely no way that I'd give my password out to anyone either.

The law is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Where exactly was that philosophy in the latest arrest?

I hope he sues them and wins big.

If you are accused of being a pedophile, wouldn't you give your password to prove you are not?
But if you are, you wouldn't as they don't have a case against you, unless they have access to your PC.

No, they can accuse me of anything that they like. They have no right to see my encrypted information and I wouldn't show it to them.

 

[Mikeegrini]

Isn't this a contempt of court issue?

Tell the court or get sent down?

 

[mat]

it shows you how poorly funded the police are. In spooks they'd have cracked it in 10 seconds.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Absolutely not.

I also keep encrypted files on my computer for security purposes and there is absolutely no way that I'd give my password out to anyone either.

The law is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Where exactly was that philosophy in the latest arrest?

I hope he sues them and wins big.

If you are accused of being a pedophile, wouldn't you give your password to prove you are not?
But if you are, you wouldn't as they don't have a case against you, unless they have access to your PC.

A very simplistic way of looking at it. You could have certain unrelated things on your computer (both legal and illegal) that you don't want anyone having access to, no matter what they are accusing you of.

 

[the--dud]

This story doesn't make sense. Say the guy had a "50 character password" but this must be some simplification or mistake from the news agencies.
My guess is he had a 56bit DSA (or similar) encryption key, which if is - it's shocking that the police don't have the resources to brute force that!
He could have had a 512bit RSA encryption key but even that should be fairly quick to brute force as asymmetric encryption like RSA is a bit easier to crack.

The reason I think something like RSA or DSA encryption was used it because you have to assume it was his actual harddrive that was encrypted - which uses these systems.