Will I Get My PC Back?

peter_hutson · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:27

mmrhhhh, a question has just popped into my head regarding the confiscation of hard drives. If you have an area of your drive encrypted, how do the authoriites go about gaining access to it. I wonder if they can demand you provide them with the password? This must be a fairly common occurrance, I have an encrypted disk image on my ibook for private information that I would not want viewed in the event of theft. I'm sure the real "naughty boys" out there encrypt everything.

Anyway, hope this all gets sorted for you tomorrow mate and you can put it behind you.

sniffy · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:29

Something is blatently wrong here. The first thing that comes to mind is the bloke you're dealing with is either a copper, ex-copper and good friends with a copper. They love to pull strings like this. I'd look into that.

peter_hutson said:
I'm sure the real "naughty boys" out there encrypt everything.

I believe a lot of "naughty boys" have very powerful magnets (Earth magnets I think they are called) on a special switch by their hard-drive. Police burst in, flick the switch and the data is seriously corrupt. I'm not sure if this even works, I just heard of a lot of "naughty boys" do this. It proves beyond reasonably doubt though you have something to hide.

-Colli$ion- · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:37

After reading this thread, If anyone is looking for some encryption software: http://www.truecrypt.org/

TrueCrypt is awesome, Easy to use open source encryption, with deniable plausibility, basically 2 encrypted sections, so you put some random non incriminating/personal data in the first and the hardcore stuff in the second, and then if you’re forced to provide the password to gain access, you provide the first password.

They cannot prove there is another encrypted section, 'Plausible Deniability', how you access each encrypted section is controlled solely by the password you supply.

Borris · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:43

peter_hutson said:
mmrhhhh, a question has just popped into my head regarding the confiscation of hard drives. If you have an area of your drive encrypted, how do the authoriites go about gaining access to it. I wonder if they can demand you provide them with the password?

Yes - Under the RIPA.

Failure to provide a password may incur an almost automatic sentence of two years.

Which makes me think that Jimmy90210's post is all lies - If the police are looking for something, and find an encrypted partition / files system, they will demand the password under the RIPA.

Unless, of course, Jimmy911 has steganographic encryption.

But I doubt that somehow.

sniffy · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:46

Borris said:
Unless, of course, Jimmy911 has steganographic encryption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganographic_file_system

Wow, that's bloody crazy.

-Colli$ion- · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:48

Borris said:
Yes - Under the RIPA.

Failure to provide a password may incur an almost automatic sentence of two years.

Which makes me think that Jimmy90210's post is all lies - If the police are looking for something, and find an encrypted partition / files system, they will demand the password under the RIPA.

Unless, of course, Jimmy911 has steganographic encryption.

But I doubt that somehow.

I believe you are talking about section 3 of RIPA, that section isn’t in force yet. AFAIK

Borris · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:53

-Colli$ion- said:
I believe you are talking about section 3 of RIPA, that section isn’t in force yet. AFAIK

I stand entirely corrected - Although Her Majesty's Secret Police are looking to push it through - Source.

All they need to do is mention paedophiles and terrorists, and it's a rubber stamped shoe in.

norm · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:58

MeatLoaf said:
Sale completed on 12 april, cash paid into wifes account on 13th april. We sent the same day. Police came knocking saturday morning.

OK my mistake. What you wrote implied it was the same month.

iBot · 12 Jul 2006 at 15:59

norm said:
That's just silly. Anybody knows in these situations you are expected to wait at least two weeks until any parcel is declared lost or stolen.

The matter you have in mind is no doubt unrelated to the inquiry the Police were following up (at the time of calling anyway).

As for your PC getting bashed up, it's your own fault. Don't step on the wrong side of the law and don't come here looking for sympathy.

It's july not april.

norm · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:03

That said.

For the Police to get involved after that period of time sort of indicates a complete breakdown in communication with the buyer and reluctance to resolve the situation.

So you can't say it was unexpected.

Cueball · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:08

VIRII said:
The whole situation screams "wrong" at me. I simply can't help thinking that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

I'm going to reserve judgement until I know more.

To me, this whole scenario seems... wrong.

The_blue · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:13

fini said:
Couldn't your mate have just said that they were mp3s of CD's you owned - the same with the DVDs? Surely they can't just keep the drives indeffinetly - they've got to be part of an ongoing case or given back AFAIK.

fini

They were to be destroyed as he couldn't prove ownership of said files.

They said either loose the drive or try and get em back in court. :eek:

Metalface Mark · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:16

Maybe the guy just sent his mates round as police officers, took your pc to make up for the pc that didnt arrive.

booyaka · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:26

InwardSinging said:
Maybe the guy just sent his mates round as police officers, took your pc to make up for the pc that didnt arrive.

lol - that had crossed my mind but i wans't sure how to subtly word it!!

Dave M · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:28

sniffy said:
I believe a lot of "naughty boys" have very powerful magnets (Earth magnets I think they are called) on a special switch by their hard-drive. Police burst in, flick the switch and the data is seriously corrupt. I'm not sure if this even works, I just heard of a lot of "naughty boys" do this. It proves beyond reasonably doubt though you have something to hide.

Pah, real men open a trap door into the pits of hell and burn their hard drives to all damnation.

Apparently it's still possible to get the files back though.

Borris · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:40

The_blue said:
They were to be destroyed as he couldn't prove ownership of said files.

They said either loose the drive or try and get em back in court.

That's an egregious abuse of police powers.

peter_hutson · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:41

Borris said:
egregious

Pants, wheres a dictionary when you need one

badgermonkey · 12 Jul 2006 at 17:29

manveruppd said:
Incidentally, the family values brigade should really lighten up a bit re: the OP's comment that he's more worried about his PC than his wife: he did state that he saw the wife post the stuff and is therefore assured of her innocense, so he has no real reason to worry about his wife. Worst case scenario they pay the buyer £500 and she's let off with a warning, but if his PC is mishandled by the police and needs replacement it would cost him twice as much.
?

FFS it wouldnt cost him twice as much! Does nobody read ANYTHING???? IF the police damage it, the police are OBLIGED to pay the damages. It wont cost him ANYTHING to replace any damage. :mad:

badgermonkey · 12 Jul 2006 at 17:34

The_blue said:
They were to be destroyed as he couldn't prove ownership of said files.

They said either loose the drive or try and get em back in court.

Why dont they just supervise a complete reformat or something? :confused:

ScoobyDoo · 12 Jul 2006 at 17:41

Just to let you know, you will get your PC back, its just a matter of how long it will take. If the CPS decide its not worth looking at then it should be returned to you in a few days.

Only trouble is these days the CPS want everything covered and Id suspect they will ask for it to be looked at.

If this is the case your looking at a few months until its returned, it wont be looked at by a foresenic department just a computer crime department within the police force, and they arent that technical, they will just have a quick look at the contents of the drive and use some standard recovery software to see whats been deleted.