Court Compels Hard Disk Decryption

In the first case of its kind, a woman has been ordered by a court to decrypt her hard drive so that prosecutors can use the decrypted files against her in court. She tried to plead the fifth amendment and not turn over the files, but was somehow overruled. This is different from border crossing cases where customs officials have compelled decryption for use in searches- since the laptop is treated like a “container file” and the container is not actually on US territory.

From Wired here by way of Ed at RightRant:

A judge on Monday ordered a Colorado woman to decrypt her laptop computer so prosecutors can use the files against her in a criminal case.

The defendant, accused of bank fraud, had unsuccessfully argued that being forced to do so violates the Fifth Amendment’s protection against compelled self-incrimination.

The authorities seized the laptop from defendant Ramona Fricosu in 2010 with a court warrant while investigating financial fraud.

The case is being closely watched (.pdf) by civil rights groups, as the issue has never been squarely weighed in on by the Supreme Court.

They have the data on that drive already. But if you have to verbally disclose a password to decrypt, how is that not self incrimination? I am usually on the law enforcement side of things when it comes to cyber evidence, but in this case, the accused has solid rights. They can take property under due process, but they cannot compel you to speak a single word against yourself, and that includes a password. It will be interesting to see what happens with this case. What she should have said is she uploaded all of the files to MegaUpload.