Your Encryption Key a Fifth Amendment Right?One Vermont federal Judge believes so...
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old news - 01:36PM Monday Dec 17 2007)
tags: legal · security · privacyA federal judge has ruled that prosecutors can't force a defendant to divulge his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) passphrase because it would violate his Fifth Amendment right. The defendant is charged with transporting child pornography on his laptop across the Canadian border, and a grand jury subpoena demanded he turn over all passwords to the computer.
CNET insists that the case could be a landmark one, because the question of whether a criminal defendant can be legally compelled to provide his encryption passphrase remains unsettled.