English 19-year-old jailed for refusal to disclose decryption key

[Marsh Ray]

On 10/07/2010 12:10 PM, Bernie Cosell wrote:
>
> There's no way to tell if you used the
> first password that you didn't decrypt everything.

Is there a way to prove that you did?

If yes, your jailers may say "We know you have more self-incriminating 
evidence there. Your imprisonment will continue until you prove that 
you've given us everything."

If no, your jailers may say "We know you have more self-incriminating 
evidence there. Your imprisonment will continue until you prove that 
you've given us everything."

Get it?

> So in theory you
> could hide the nasty stuff behind the second passsword, a ton of innocent
> stuff behind the first password and just give them the first password
> when asked.

If the encrypted file is large, and disk file fragmentation patterns, 
timestamps, etc. suggest it has grown through reallocation, the 4 KB 
grocery list you decrypt out of it is not going to convince anyone.
On the other hand, if you produce a sufficient amount of relatively 
incompressable image, video, or encrypted data from it, you may be able 
to convince them that you've decrypted it all.

- Marsh

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