A U.s. federal court states that a defendant cannot be required to enter the password of encrypted data to hand. According to the court, such an obligation is in conflict with the U.s. constitution.
According to the judge in Atlanta is the obligation of a defendant to the password of encrypted data in violation of the fifth amendment of the U.s. constitution, writes The Wall Street Journal. In that amendment is that a defendant during a trial can not be forced to go against himself to testify. A suspect has according to the judge, so the right to withhold passwords from encrypted data.
The case revolves around a man who is suspected of child pornography on his computers. The defendant was by a lower court in april 2010 under pressure to the passwords of the TrueCrypt encrypted data on five hard disks and a laptop to release, but he refused, because this would conflict with fundamental human rights. The defendant then decided to appeal and now has the three-man court in Atlanta behind his position.
The court states that when the suspect data is forced had to decrypt, that would be similar to forcing the defendant to a witness to refer to possible criminal files. Also would the prosecutors not likely have been able to make that on the encrypted hard drives is actually data that is punishable.
The judgment of the court is remarkable, because American judges on several occasions, suspects have forced to type in the password to hand over encrypted data. So ruled a court in Colorado this week that a suspicious woman with data on her laptop accessible. The question is, however, not yet been a ruling by the highest rechtsorgaan of the united states, the Supreme Court.