Let us not forget all of the methods of "deniable encryption" discussed a few years back. If the "wrong" key is entered, the returned "de-encrypted" file will look -kinda- bad but not actually be the original plaintext. This seems all the easier with TOR-stored data. Fortunately, it would appear that such a law should be bound to force development of deniable encryption tools. -TD
From: Sarad AV <jtrjtrjtr2001@yahoo.com> To: cypherpunks@jfet.org Subject: Re: [Clips] UK Government to force handover of encryption keys Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 22:03:17 -0700 (PDT)
This clearly doesnt work. All they will manage to do is harass citizens.
Sarad.
--- "R.A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com> wrote:
"It is, as ever, almost impossible to prove 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that some random-looking data is in fact ciphertext, and then prove that the accused actually has the key for it, and that he has refused a proper order to divulge it," pointed out encryption expert Peter Fairbrother on ukcrypto, a public email discussion list.
Clayton backed up this point. "The police can say 'We think he's a terrorist' or 'We think he's trading in kiddie porn', and the suspect can say, 'No, they're love letters, sorry, I've lost the key'. How much evidence do you need [to convict]? If you can't decrypt [the data], then by definition you don't know what it is," said Clayton.
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