Plausible Deniability

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 13:14

So, let's say you were a secret agent that had a hard drive full of top secret documents that you didn't want anyone to access, unless you gave them a password. If the police found them, you would be sentenced to infinite years in prison.

If you were to use Truecrypt and used the hidden OS feature, would that be enough to stop anybody finding your data about pirate ships? Does the 'plausible deniability' work as it should? If you said that no OS existed other than the one they could see, could they prove otherwise? If not, how come?

If the police asked you for a password for an OS they could see, you would have to give it to them, as far as I know. Then you would fail as a secret agent.

Thanks,
yhack

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 13:40

Haggisman said:
If you set Truecrypt up correctly, it would be very difficult, but not impossible for them to detect the hidden OS.

That's where it's very important not to give them any reason to suspect that there is a hidden OS, so that they don't feel it's worthwhile to dig to the level required to find it

I see. So if they went onto the 'decoy' OS and saw it had 60GB of space, on a 120GB hard drive, would that be a good enough reason to look for a hidden OS? Or would it not say 60GB total?

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 14:13

FNGsam said:
..And then they check your browsers history and find this thread

Incognito mode :cool:

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 14:45

steve-h said:
Or he just didn't want to give up his privacy. I would do the same (well I'd go with the 'I forgot it' excuse over refusing)... if I didn't have a safe password to give.

You would rather go to jail than give a password, with nothing to hide?

I think I would only do that, were there something behind the password that would get me more time in jail.

If you didn't give the password and went to prison, could they try and get the password off you again when you got out, and send you back?

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 15:53

Energizer Bunny said:
This is the same OP as the thread where the girlfriend found the Asian porn on his hard drive, right?

No, sorry.

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:27

Tefal said:
yeah except in real life they'll just pull, your finger nails out and water board you till you crack and tell them the password.#

Yeah but with this, they can't do it as they don't know it exists.

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 18:21

Tefal said:
then why are they arresting you?

They might take your computer to try and find evidence for anything. If they find pirated music or software, it's not going to make it any easier.

My netbook is encrypted with TrueCrypt, so when I take it on holiday, if it's stolen, no one will be able to log into my email or get any of my passwords. They could sell the netbook on, but they wont be able to access any of my data. I value the data more than the hardware.

I would rather no one except me could see my private data. Unfortunately, if the police asked you for the password, you have to give it to them.

Ahleckz said:
It just seems a little drastic. It's likely that whoever robs your computer really isn't concerned about what is it on, they are just nicking it too make a quick buck selling it on down the pub or something. I still don't understand why people would want to go to such lengths to 'hide' their data unless it was illegal.

I'm sure you have information that isn't illegal but you don't want others knowing.

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 19:05

Ahleckz said:
Another thing that I don't understand is that you are worried about people getting your passwords if your computer is stolen. I'm not sure about you, but I don't have my computer remembering all my passwords - what would the point be?

It makes everything easier. If no one can even get to the Windows loading screen, there's nothing to worry about.

Ahleckz said:
It would be akin to writing your PIN on your bank card.

It would be like writing your PIN on your bank card, but you keep your bank card in an invisible, uncrackable safe.

Ahleckz said:
No, there is nothing on my computer harddrive that I would mind anyone looking at. There's some personal stuff but I really don't care if anyone reads my emails between me and my girlfriend.

Well I think a lot of people keep many personal details on their computer, including photos, receipts, CVs, code. There's details of friends and family on my computer, which I don't want anyone getting either.

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 19:14

Tefal said:
so they arrested this spy for what exactly?

Someone got stabbed and he fitted the vague description. Police arrested him and searched his home. They found a kitchen knife, so took his computer to get more evidence. Turns out it wasn't him, but now he has to pay £1million to some dudes for downloading some song he heard on the radio.

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 19:24

It's copyright. I heard he got deported to America and they did it there

yhack · 14 Mar 2012 at 22:32

Richie said:
edit: I wonder if this thread will turn out like the other one where someone in Computer Forensics was insisting that data could be recovered from a HDD even if it had been fully overwritten and magically increase your HDD space seven-fold... Can't find it now

I've recovered files that have been lost before with some software. To actually get rid of a file you need to overwrite it loads of times I think.