Originally posted by scotsdavy1
Can she not just say that she forgot her password? I have so many passwords it is getting beyond a joke these days....

Exactly. If that were me I'd just say that I have the early stages of Alzheimer's. Although I'm 24, so I doubt anybody would believe me lol.

Edit: I forgot to mention, if law enforcement ever wants to look at your hard drive and you're pretty sure that they will get a warrant, just microwave it. I'm not even kidding. That will destroy every piece of data that it contains.

Originally posted by Xaphan
Edit: I forgot to mention, if law enforcement ever wants to look at your hard drive and you're pretty sure that they will get a warrant, just microwave it. I'm not even kidding. That will destroy every piece of data that it contains.

edit on 21-5-2012 by Xaphan because: (no reason given)

Whoops. I should update this with one safety precaution:

If you ever have to resort to microwaving your hard drive, do it outside. Plug your microwave into one of the outdoor outlets on the side of your house, or in your garage with the garage door open, because doing this will most likely create some really noxious smoke/fumes that could be devastating to your health if inhaled. If you don't have outlets outside I suppose you could just feed an extension cord through a window or whatever. Just don't do it indoors, and don't stand anywhere near it. Set it for a good ten minutes or so and walk away quickly. Keep in mind that this will also destroy your microwave.

I'm pretty sure you dont need a password to view the contents of someone's hard drive. If there is material on that drive which needs to be seen to determine the outcome of this trial, then it's an obstruction of justice not to allow cops to see that material for starters, and secondly they should have no problems cracking the thing open to see what's on there.

If you have the time take a hammer and whack it a few dozen times. Drilling thru it with a electric drill a couple of times works too. And if you want to add insult to this urinate on the drive and then place it in the garbage can.

Let them try getting data from that.

I think giving a password up is self-incrimination.

I don't think they should require that. Seems unconstitutional to me. I don't care what the judge says.
I don't think you should have to give up your spouses either.

I had a business grade Lenovo laptop once. The coolest feature about it was it had a secure hdd.

That is, the hdd was by default, encrypted by the hard drives own electronics. You had to input a hdd unlock password before the machine would even boot up. No password, the drive wouldn't even spin up. Wrong password, the data on it remained encrypted. The only way law enforcement could have gained access to it, was to seize the machine while it was powered on and operational.

Sad thing was, it got stolen by a local meth-head. We all know who stole it, just can't prove it.

As for steganography, police are well aware of it. In the UK, if they raid, you'd better supply 2 passwords. One for the outer volume, one for the hidden volume. In the UK, its an offence to fail to supply a valid password, punishable by 6 months in jail (which can be repeated until you finally give it up). Its also an offence to destroy the data. "Willful destruction of evidence".You;d have a hard time convincing a ccourt that it wasn't evidence, since you destroyed it.

Pretty much the only valid defence in the UK, is "I've forotten it, guv, sorry sir. I'd had a few to many bevvies that night".

Also, truecrypt had a flaw at one time, don't know if it still does. It cached the passwords in RAM, and they could be extracted by forensics from the RAM. RAM chips, if handled correctly, retain the last data written to them for up to 30 minutes of being powered down. They have to be kept cold (below -20C), very cold, but it gives them time to whip them out of your machine, and remount them in another machine where the passwords can be extracted.

This phenomenon has been known for years, but only really studied since 2002, its called "Data Remanence in RAM".

Silly civilian...Just shut up and do what your told!!!

This is the world we live in today.