Massachusetts high court says accused criminal must decrypt computers for police

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Massachusetts high court says accused criminal must decrypt computers for police

BY ELIZABETH BARBER
BOSTON Wed Jun 25, 2014 3:27pm EDT

(Reuters) - Police can order an accused criminal to decrypt his computer without violating his constitutional right against self-incrimination, Massachusetts' top court said on Wednesday.

In the latest U.S. ruling on the contentious issue, the 5-2 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reverses a lower court’s finding that police could not force Leon Gelfgatt, charged with mortgage fraud, to decrypt four computers seized in an investigation, since doing so would violate his Fifth Amendment right.

The court found that since Gelfgatt had told investigators that the computer belonged to him and that he had the encryption key, police could compel him to decrypt his files.

“The Commonwealth's motion to compel decryption does not violate the defendant's rights under the Fifth Amendment because the defendant is only telling the government what it already knows,” according to the court’s opinion.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/25/us-usa-cybercrime-massachusetts-idUSKBN0F02J920140625

[savalez]

1. what happens if he refuses?

[BillZBubb]

2. The court got this one wrong.

The government doesn't know how to decrypt the files, so the opinion that forcing the decryption is only telling the government what it already knows is asinine.

What is shocking is that 5 out of seven judges bought this line of BS.

[sdfernando]

3. Agreed....

I'd have been asking "If you already know what is there, why do you need it decrypted?"

[Pholus]

4. So the takeaway seems to be to always play dumb about encryption?

The sad thing is that you are seeing the first government encroachments into your mind. This one seems to fly in the face of other similar cases in that it appears admitting the existence of the password screws you.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/identity/passwords-tangled-in-fifth-amendment/131

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/17/should_the_government_search_your_brain/

Baby steps to a frightening future, given the ongoing research in trying to map out the brain. I knew the fifth was basically dead the night I read this one prosecutor's opinion that forcible application of some magical mind-reading device would not constitute a violation of the fifth amendment because the fifth is rooted in free will and the machine would take that away.

The implications of that are simply awesome. Piss tests would seem quaint at that point.

[Styx]

5. My takeaway...

...was the same as usual, he shouldn't have talked as much as he did. Just shut up and ask for a lawyer. No statements whatsoever.