The cracker who's using Secure Drive could be an interesting case. Unfortunately, assuming that a cracker at a university is probably a student, he may not hve very good legal representation, and I'd hate to see bad precedent on "can you be forced to reveal your key" set because someone is not only a tresspasser but a stupid one as well. Do you know if the wiretapping was being done by police, or if it was just the university staff with ethernet sniffers? I was interested by your comment that they can't prosecute the person without the data; while it could certainly be helpful to have, one would hope they had a reasonably solid case *before* they went and arrested him.....
Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart NCR Corp, 6870 Koll Center Parkway, Pleasanton CA, 94566 # Voice/Beeper 510-224-7043, Phone 510-484-6204 # email bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com billstewart@attmail.com
Assuming the arrest warrant was good not revealing the key to a duly authorized court representative would be illegal (ie interfereing with a police investigation). If the courts serve a warrant for your arrest and the confiscation of data on your hard drive (and you refuse to turn the data over even after talking w/ an attorney) is specificaly mentioned you are opening yourself up for another whole world of legal hurt. A citizen would have the legal right to refuse prior to talking w/ an attorney but not after, at that point it becomes witholding evidence. If the process is legal there should be no reason a citizen can refuse to turn over his private keys (I don't believe self-incrimination holds here).