Can anyone find a citation to the earlier article, or better yet, the court ruling indicating that they had a recorded phone conversation of her admitting that the evidence is on her hard drive?
She admited to her husband in a jailhouse conversation (over the phone) that she was basically using it as a bargining chip for immunity (which they granted as they have bigger fish to fry). The fucked up thing is still that the court has no way to PROVE anything in her head. She could have forgot the password and is just saying that over the phone, perhaps for bargaining power. This is likely not the case but in America you must be able to prove things. If I was her I would remain ignorant and take the 1.5-2 years for contempt if that even holds. It’s a lot better than ratting yourself and others out for mortgage fraud. This sets a very dangerous percident as the time will come where people legitimately forget their password. Also this can reveal VERY incriminating information that would have otherwise been unknown. Some scenarious: Imagine one had seemingly incriminating evidence on the computer. Imagine if a business associate was murdered, you are the prime suspect and you did not do it. What if you had email on your computer detailing failed business deals and his defrauding and stealing money from you. A prosecuter could paint the picture that you murdered your associate when you in fact did not. Imagine you visited 4chan for lulz. You are now in posession of child pornography, even if it is just a cached image. If the procecuters can not get you on the original crime they may as well go after this. Pirated movies?? You all see the disclaimer at the begining of DVDs, another technicality to get you on. Imagine they see your private business dealings. I’m sure there’s some technicality they can get you on if they wanted.
I just wanted to mention that there are [key disclosure laws in several countries.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law) In the UK for example, someone can be held until they provide a password or decrypted data. Forgetting the password is not a legal defence.
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Can anyone find a citation to the earlier article, or better yet, the court ruling indicating that they had a recorded phone conversation of her admitting that the evidence is on her hard drive?
Best I’ve got is a Reddit comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/otp63/i_really_hope_this_goes_to_the_supreme_court_and/c3k3azi
She admited to her husband in a jailhouse conversation (over the phone) that she was basically using it as a bargining chip for immunity (which they granted as they have bigger fish to fry). The fucked up thing is still that the court has no way to PROVE anything in her head. She could have forgot the password and is just saying that over the phone, perhaps for bargaining power. This is likely not the case but in America you must be able to prove things. If I was her I would remain ignorant and take the 1.5-2 years for contempt if that even holds. It’s a lot better than ratting yourself and others out for mortgage fraud. This sets a very dangerous percident as the time will come where people legitimately forget their password. Also this can reveal VERY incriminating information that would have otherwise been unknown. Some scenarious: Imagine one had seemingly incriminating evidence on the computer. Imagine if a business associate was murdered, you are the prime suspect and you did not do it. What if you had email on your computer detailing failed business deals and his defrauding and stealing money from you. A prosecuter could paint the picture that you murdered your associate when you in fact did not. Imagine you visited 4chan for lulz. You are now in posession of child pornography, even if it is just a cached image. If the procecuters can not get you on the original crime they may as well go after this. Pirated movies?? You all see the disclaimer at the begining of DVDs, another technicality to get you on. Imagine they see your private business dealings. I’m sure there’s some technicality they can get you on if they wanted.
I just wanted to mention that there are [key disclosure laws in several countries.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law) In the UK for example, someone can be held until they provide a password or decrypted data. Forgetting the password is not a legal defence.
Found it! http://scholar.google.ca/scholar_case?q=US+v.+Fricosu&hl=en&as_sdt=2,5&as_vis=1&case=7486865546677786730&scilh=0 Also at the EFF in PDF format here https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/filenode/Fricosu%20Order.pdf