How convenient :-/ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 12:02:32 -0500 From: Jeffrey Walton To: James S. Tyre Cc: cryptography@randombit.net Subject: Re: [cryptography] Constitutional Showdown Voided as Feds Decrypt Laptop On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 5:53 PM, James S. Tyre wrote:

(This is the case in Colorado, not the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals case which has been much discussed of late.)

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/decryption-flap-mooted

Constitutional Showdown Voided as Feds Decrypt Laptop

By David Kravets Email Author February 29, 2012 | 5:17 pm

Colorado federal authorities have decrypted a laptop seized from a bank-fraud defendant, mooting a judge's order that the defendant unlock the hard drive so the government could use its contents as evidence against her.

The development ends a contentious legal showdown over whether forcing a defendant to decrypt a laptop is a breach of the 5th Amendment right against compelled self incrimination.

The authorities seized the encrypted Toshiba laptop from defendant Ramona Fricosu in 2010 with valid court warrants while investigating alleged mortgage fraud, and demanded she decrypt it. Colorado U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered the woman in January to decrypt the laptop by the end of February. The judge refused to stay his decision to allow Fricosu time to appeal.

"They must have used or found successful one of the passwords the co-defendant provided them," Fricosu's attorney, Philip Dubois, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Perhaps Fricosu reused a password and was on a mailing list using Mailman...

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