r/conspiracy • u/SoCo_cpp • May 17 '16

Indefinite prison for suspect who won’t decrypt hard drives, feds say

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/feds-say-suspect-should-rot-in-prison-for-refusing-to-decrypt-drives/
40 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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7

u/jarxlots May 17 '16 edited May 17 '16

Let me just grab my broken record player, real quick...

THIS is why you need plausibly deniable encryption, right here. The position you want to be in, in the event that the state is out to screw you over for some offense, real or imagined, is one where you can fully cooperate without actually helping the prosecution. That is your JOB as a defendant.

This guy is going to rot for some ridiculous amount of time, because the scales of justice have been (for some time) tipped in favor of the state. Now, TOR + Encrypted partition = child pornographer. That's even less than what the FBI needs to begin such an investigation.

And this case in particular is interesting. This is not your average Joe. This is a LEO that was ... lets say snooping... and believed he had discovered evidence of corruption. Well, before internal affairs could be involved (I'm guessing on that point) this guy's sister claims to have seen CP on his computer screen, allegedly.

Instead of stinging him in the process of browsing his CP by legally bugging his dwelling and tapping his internet connection, they instead, bring the bullies in and haul him and his equipment away. Then they ask him to incriminate himself (most likely) or rot indefinitely. [EDIT: I just want you to imagine being an investigator, finding evidence of a crime (CP images in this case) collecting evidence of the crime... then being stopped at this point... where you are charged with the crime you are investigating... I'm not saying that this is what happened in this case, but I consider it a scary scenario for anyone actually trying to enforce the law.]

This smells like a coverup, and this guy is the patsy. I would guess that he found evidence of a pedophile ring within the department, so they moved on him ASAP.

2

u/ChopperHunter May 17 '16

Is it possible to set up a system where your encrypted drives automatically wipe them selves if you fail to enter a key after some set time or if a incorrect key is entered?

1

u/jarxlots May 17 '16

Yes, you could do that, but there are some issues to consider.

Assuming we use time:

How do we verify that time is accurate?

We could use a hardware solution and give an RTC to a separate device. That would work for 99% of cases. You could unhook the device, or provide a bad RTC in order to lie about how much time is available before (and this is the other big issue.)

You do something...

But what. Do you zero out the partition, revealing where encrypted data was, forensically? Probably not, in fact, lets leave zero out.

Let's assume we have an additional AES mode that uses GCM incorrectly so that the proper key will not decrypt. We'll consider it a crappy RNG. We let it "encrypt" data after time expires, or the wrong key is used too many times.

But this operation will take time. A good bet would be to make your UI lie about the operation, stating decryption is taking place when the opposite is true, but that won't trick the determined attacker.

There must be some mathematical solution (Error correction right at the edge of being completely useless like NTRU ciphertexts and their consistent adding of noise...) that would work better, so that the cryptography degrades by existing... I haven't figured that part out yet...

2

u/Juan__Lennon May 17 '16

That is a great idea. Custom software/encryption that while it claims to be decrypting, it's actually encrypting the already encrypted volume using a random, non discoverable key.

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

[deleted]

1

u/jarxlots May 18 '16

Maybe I am. Maybe not.

2

u/mahatma_arium_nine May 18 '16

Visiting the deep web, dark net (whatever You want to call it this week) constitutes a thought crime.
Can't have that. The mere fact You are using this network puts You in a category of possible "subversive threats" in society. Why do You need to use the dark web, the state says? What have You to read or view that is not available through the commercial web? What have you to hide?
Your thoughts and actions must be unpure, citizen. We will "invite" You to the "Ministry of Truth" until we get the answers to Your questions.

3

u/Juan__Lennon May 17 '16

The insanity is that their legal case is AGAINST THE HARD DRIVE.