Gwebs Cryptographer

My computer is every hacker’s dream: chock-full of personal information that can be used in deliciously evil ways. Stored on my hard drive are electronic copies of my passport, previous tax returns, and a plethora of other files that contain sensitive information. If accessed, this information would allow someone to easily steal my identity or worse.

Thankfully, I encrypt those files (meaning the only person who has access to them is me). I am the only person that knows the encryption password (sometimes called a passphrase) used to decrypt my files for viewing. Without the password, the files cannot be accessed.

Hackers and personal information aside, let’s pretend the files I encrypted contain incriminating information. Hypothetically speaking, could someone use the law to force me to divulge my encryption password so they could access my files?

Read more…

email, encryption, government, law, passphrases, privacy 5th amendment, encryption, law, password

One of the reasons we (yes, it’s a we now) at the Cryptographer are in this business is because we get to laugh at the messes we ourselves will never get into. Take, for example, Guo Li, a Hangzhou lawyer whose email was inadvertently “hung out to dry” online by Baidu (China’s search giant) and WanWang (one of China’s largest hosting providers). He sued for 1,000,000RMB (around $120,000), and the results speak for themselves.

I have translated the following article specifically for this blog.

Private Emails “Hung Out to Dry” for a Month, Victim Sues Baidu for
Violation of Privacy.
8-12-2007 3:35 A.M., Beijing Morning Post
After his private emails hosted in a Baidu (百度) account were posted online for more than a month, Hangzhou lawyer Guo Li (郭力) decided to sue Baidu Inc. and email services provider WanWang (万网) for 1,000,000 yuan in damages, claiming his communication privacy rights were violated. A judgment will be issued tomorrow at the Haidian District Court on this so-called “national precedent-setting email privacy case.” Guo Li stated at the conclusion of the trial, “It’s entirely possible to look into other people’s inboxes online, I’ve searched the information myself. This won’t be the last trial of this type.”

Read more…

Security, email, encryption, government, law, personal, privacy Baidu, email, email server, Internet Security, law, lawyer, privacy, search engine, Wanwang, 万网, 晒, 海淀区, 百度, 郭力, 金道律师事务所