On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, John Kelsey wrote:
The obvious problem with multiple levels of passwords and data is: When does the guy with the rubber hose stop beating passwords out of you? After he gets one? Yeah, that's plausible, if he's convinced there's only one. But once he's seen a second hidden level, why will he ever believe there's not a third, fourth, etc.? The same calculation applies to a judge or district attorney. He *knows* (even if he's wrong) that there's evidence of kiddie-porn, drug dealing, etc., in there somewhere. He knows you've given up two passwords. Why is he ever going to let you out of jail, or ever going to reduce the charges down to something a normal human might live long enough to serve out the time for?
This serves a purpose as well. Why would you ever cooperate if you can't expect much from the deal anyway?