Jailed for refusing to tell Police a password

[R1Geezer]

On the front page of the Metro it says that a teenager has been jailed for refusing to reveal a password. Does anyone know the law for this? It's in Scoitland so maybe it's different. It seems to me that you should not be forced to reveal passwords, seems a lttle out of order to sling him in jail. Presumably it's on some sort of "obstruction" charge, any thoughts and opinions on this? Anyone have a detailed understanding of this area? thanks

[R1Geezer]

first you have to find where the passwrod is stored but even then the encryption is irreversable. No dice, why do you think they have given plod this power?

[DrFilth]

R1 no
summary of powers of search under the ploice and crimal evidence act 1984
1, section 17
e

i had my house searched , the plod would not believe me. they had the wrong house it was next door they wanted.
after searching mine they went and searched next door

simple thing like check a door number, mine is different :)

[squarebear]

Once, our Chief Exec forgot the encyrption password to his PC. We lifted the encoded password from his computer and ran it through a password cracker. It found it after about 3 hours but granted it was only about 10 characters.

[R1Geezer]

so why do they always have to go and get a warrent then? I know several plods and they still have to get a warrant usually from a beak. So are you saying they never need a warrant or are there special curcumstances?

[R1Geezer]

That was not a irrversable encryption then Square bear. It depends on the system but if you want to make it uncrackable then they would use irrversable encryption and that is uncrackable because of it's very nature. Essentially an algorithm is applied such that if you do it back wards you do not get the original input.

[hc4361]

They are right to send him to prison. The sentence for what he's trying to hide is obviously going to be far more severe and he knows it.
It's no different to forcing a door to search premises or a vehicle.
Criminals should not be able to hide behind passwords.

[DrFilth]

R1 under 1, section 17,
e,
saving life or limb or preventing serious damage to property


if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear :)

[squarebear]

If a copper wanted to search my house without a warrant, i would let him. I have nothing to hide.

[R1Geezer]

Oddly eough DrFilth, I've never been a "nothing to hide nothing to fear" proponent. I don't trust the state with half the powers they have.

Squarebear, here is a write up:
http://ashishpshukla....sh-algorithm-sha-256/

[squarebear]

In that case, it looks like they'll be trying:

aardvark1
aardvark2
.
.
.
.
.
and so on.


I do think they were right to jail him though. Keep the perv in nick until he tells the password or rots. Which ever comes sooner.

[fredpuli47]

Just hope he can still remember it!

[squarebear]

If he's anything like our users, it'll be on a post-it note stuck to his laptop.

[AB Editor]

Hopefully none of you have ever used one of these:

http://www.whatsmypas...passwords-of-all-time

[squarebear]

The 5th most popular password is "p u s s y"?!

[R1Geezer]

that only works if the system doesn't diable itself after so many tries Squarebear, for 50 digits it would take a trillion years! especially as it's almost certainly got mixed case, numbers special characters etc. Uncrackable, that's why he's in jail, presumably they can only keep him in for 5 years, according to the article supplied by Jake.

[DrFilth]

after 5 years in jail his computer will be out of date

[daffy654]

He has been found guilty of downloading and distributing child porn so why do they even need to see what is on the computer? Why not just take the hardrive out and smash it with a hammer to prevent his viewing/distributing the images when he gets out. He could also be banned from owning another computer.

[jno]

they might like to know more about who he got it from perhaps.

[R1Geezer]

how can you ban someone from owning a computer? I don;t beleive such a statute exists. I agree though daffy, presumably they have enough to put him away anyway so why to they care about the computer, confiscate and destroy as you suggest.

[ummmm]

And who he sent them to.