Just How Protected Is Your Laptop?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/laptop-decryption-appeal-rejected/

As an owner of a laptop computer (which I, of course, password-protect), I generally view the contents of my laptop as secure and inaccessible to anyone other than myself. I also believe that, as an American citizen, the privacy and security of the contents of my laptop is a right that I should have by necessity. My laptop is my property, therefore, the files on my laptop are my property. However, not everyone can lay claim to having that right consistently protected.

Now, I am not going to make a decision as to whether or not the court ruling discussed in this article was ethical or not. To sum it up briefly, a woman who was accused of bank fraud was ordered to decrypt the contents of her laptop, as it is assumed that there is information on the laptop that could be used as evidence against her. This sort of case is quite rare, and there is not much legal precedent for it. Because of this fact, the decision by the court was quite difficult, and it was certainly not something that would be referred to as an "open and shut case."

As the ruling stands, the future of the case is still somewhat unclear. The ruling was that the woman who was accused is required to decrypt her laptop within a month's time. However, if she does not unlock the laptop within a month, what will happen next is still up in the air. She is currently trying to use the defense that she forgot her password... which, in my opinion, is a lie. If you are skilled enough to commit bank fraud, you can remember a password. To add to the difficulty of the case, the encryption technique that is used on the laptop would likely make a computer-assisted password break take possibly up to decades. It's certainly a unique case that will likely stand as a precedent for similar future cases.