Judge orders defendant to decrypt PGP-protected laptop

[Adam Fields]

On Tue, Mar 03, 2009 at 12:26:32PM -0500, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> 
> Quoting:
> 
>    A federal judge has ordered a criminal defendant to decrypt his
>    hard drive by typing in his PGP passphrase so prosecutors can view
>    the unencrypted files, a ruling that raises serious concerns about
>    self-incrimination in an electronic age.
> 
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10172866-38.html

The privacy issues are troubling, of course, but it would seem trivial
to bypass this sort of compulsion by having the disk encryption
software allow multiple passwords, each of which unlocks a different
version of the encrypted partition.

When compelled to give out your password, you give out the one that
unlocks the partition full of kitten and puppy pictures, and who's to
say that's not all there is on the drive?

Is there any disk encryption software for which this is common
practice?

-- 
				- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ http://workstuff.tumblr.com ] ........... Technology Blog
[ http://www.aquick.org/blog ] ............ Personal Blog
[ http://www.adamfields.com/resume.html ].. Experience
[ http://www.flickr.com/photos/fields ] ... Photos
[ http://www.twitter.com/fields ].......... Twitter
[ http://www.morningside-analytics.com ] .. Latest Venture
[ http://www.confabb.com ] ................ Founder

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com