Child porn suspect jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt hard drives
Man to remain locked up "until such time that he fully complies" with court order.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/child-porn-suspect-jailed-for-7-months-for-refusing-to-decrypt-hard-drives/
The suspect, a former Philadelphia Police Department sergeant, has not been charged with any child porn crimes. Instead, he remains indefinitely imprisoned in Philadelphia's Federal Detention Center for refusing to unlock two drives encrypted with Apple's FileVault software in a case that once again highlights the extent to which the authorities are going to crack encrypted devices. The man is to remain jailed "until such time that he fully complies" with the decryption order.
The government successfully cited a 1789 law known as the All Writs Act to compel (PDF) the suspect to decrypt two hard drives it believes contain child pornography. The All Writs Act was the same law the Justice Department asserted in its legal battle with Apple, in which a magistrate ordered the gadget maker to write code to assist the authorities in unlocking the iPhone used by one of two shooters who killed 14 people at a San Bernardino County government building in December. The authorities dropped that case after they paid a reported $1 million for a hack.
Donoghue wrote that his client's "first claim is that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The claim stems from the government’s apparently unprecedented use of an unusual procedural vehicle to attempt to compel a suspect to give evidence in advance of potential criminal charges. Specifically, the government took resort not to a grand jury, but to a magistrate judge pursuant to the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651."
The defense also claims that "compelling the target of a criminal investigation to recall and divulge an encryption passcode transgresses the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination."
The Supreme Court has never addressed the compelled decryption issue. But Donoghue says the court came close in 2000 when it said a suspect cannot be forced "to disclose the sequence of numbers that will open a combination lock." A federal appeals court ruled in 2012, however, that a bank-fraud defendant must decrypt her laptop, but the ruling wasn't enforced as the authorities obtained the password elsewhere.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has weighed in on the suspect's plight, telling the circuit court in a friend-of-the-court brief (PDF) that "compelled decryption is inherently testimonial because it compels a suspect to use the contents of their mind to translate unintelligible evidence into a form that can be used against them. The Fifth Amendment provides an absolute privilege against such self-incriminating compelled decryption."
The investigation began in 2015 when Pennsylvania prosecutors were monitoring the online network Freenet and executed a search warrant of the man's home.
Police plants own computers in Freenet, log IPs, makes arrest
23 November, 2015
http://www.hacker10.com/internet-anonymity/police-plants-own-computers-in-freenet-makes-arrest/
Freenet, a P2P network routing traffic across multiple nodes to hide people’s IP when filesharing, and often cited by the media as part of the dark web, appears to have been broken by law enforcement.
Court records related to Paul Bradley Meagher, a University of North Dakota police officer arrested for downloading child porn from the “anonymous” peer to peer network Freenet, reveal that the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation had been running an undercover operation in the network since 2011, planting their own nodes inside Freenet to be able to log people’s IPs and trace the final destination of users downloading illegal material.
The Grand Forks Herald from North Dakota cites detective Jesse Smith in the affidavit as admitting to her department running nodes in Freenet to be able to track people downloading files included in a list of known child porn file hashes from the police database.
[S]o little is known about how they track people. It could be because Freenet has far less nodes than Tor, or because Freenet code has some bug (it requires Java to run).
With further research I found that the ICAC Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, in 2014 ran a Freenet workshop for law enforcement to present what they called the “Black Ice Project“. Quoted on their website as “This session will describe the basic functioning of Freenet, how persons exchanging child abuse material, the system’s vulnerabilities and how the Black Ice project exploits them.”
Law Enforcement Freenet Project links
https://www.reddit.com/r/Freenet/comments/4es8lv/law_enforcement_freenet_project_links/
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Tl;DR version please.
>>72320618
Judge is demanding a defendant provide evidence against themselves.
Apparently you don't have to give up lock combinations, but encryption password are different. gg legal precedent.
>>72320618
North Dakota police department plants their own computers in Freenet, log IPs. With much controversy of the methodology of determining who was actually searching and downloading child pornography, mind you. The way Freenet works technically incriminates everybody on the system. All of the information being downloaded bounces between nodes which everybody using freenet is.
A man has yet to be charged with possessing child pornography but is being held in prison for refusing to decrypt his hard drives.
The federal government has used the All Writs Act of 1789 (hence Founding Fathers) to compel this man to decrypt is hard drives.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether or not this is constitutional.
>Let me search your house
>No
>Judge says you have to let me search your house
>No
Do you see?
>>72320540
He never recalled ever saying this.
FBI is definitely monitoring this thread.
>>72321577
"Most internet quotes are made up." -Abraham Lincoln
God imagine how much cp that guy must have on his hard drive to be willing to go through this. Better to be a civil rights martyr then a sex offender I guess.
>>72321664
>can't remember password
>get locked up forever
>>72321809
Fugggggg
What happens with deniable encryption? Do they jail you until you come up with a password that produces whatever they're looking for?
>>72319808
>>72321291
The North Dakota investigation was called the Black Ice Project. They foolishly left all of their documentation available publicly on their own Freenet site but has since took them down. The following is what somebody was able to download before they deleted everything.
Law Enforcement Freenet Project links
https://www.reddit.com/r/Freenet/comments/4es8lv/law_enforcement_freenet_project_links/
Related thread on the 8/tech/ board. Somebody claims to have downloaded everything.
>>72322159
He also says to avoid Freenet nodes with this IP range.
>>72321615
"That's a lie, go back to sleep" - Obama
>>72321291
>being held in prison for refusing to decrypt his hard drives.
Considering that he is apparently not being charged, can they do that for any length of time?
>>72322159
>>72322236
Quote from the 8/tech/ thread:
They apparently use harvested Freenet IPs and have a way to see all the networks a suspect IP was active on.
I assume they run a few Tor entry nodes to harvest limited IPs too.
>>72322253
"benis in fajina, fugggggg" -Clinton (Guess Which One)
>>72319346
>jailed indefinitely for refusing to incriminate himself
LAND OF THE FREE
A
N
D
O
F
T
H
E
F
R
E
E
>>72322159
>>72322236
>>72322337
>>72322123
I use a password manager at my job with corporate client files. Without the password manager I wouldn't even know the password myself.
>>72322159
>>72322236
>>72322236
>>72322337
>>72322382
Quote from the 8/tech/ thread:
They monitor over 40,000 torrent info hashes
>>72322341
The one that infamous for liking them young
>>72322159
>>72322236
>>72322337
>>72322382
>>72322430
Quote from the 8/tech/ thread:
They weight CP torrent.
1 is legal clothed children
9 is "worst of the worst"
>>72322443
Shit, Australia. You're alright. Now give me my sides back you asshole.
>>72322396
That's too bad, stay in prison until you remember.
>>72321374
Not the same thing. More like
> You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law
> OK
> Now tell me the password
> I invoke my right to remain silent
> Rot in jail until you tell me the password
>>72322382
Nothing a VPN can't cure.
>>72320540
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then the world was a better place.
LAND OF THE FREE
OF
T
H
E
F
R
E
E
>>72322159
>available publicly on their own Freenet site
Correction: These documents were on their on clearnet site.
67 documents out of a total of over 100 have been confirmed downloaded before not only the Black Ice Project's clearnet site took them down.
>>72319346
So basically he's not only denied his fifth amendment right, he's not even allowed to forget the password? This is bullshit, I'm sure the supreme court will deem this unconstitutional.
Freenet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet
Pic related is why it's so stupid to assume someone is searching for and downloading child pornography. The way Freenet works technically incriminates everybody using Freenet.
>>72324834
You're going to use this as your defense aren't ya squidward
>>72322863
>being a pedophile
Predators, police in online struggle
http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/north-dakota/3885239-predators-police-online-struggle
Court records reveal the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been running an undercover operation on the peer-to-peer network Freenet since 2011...
Essentially, the BCI planted its own computers within the Freenet network, according to an affidavit written by BCI Agent Jesse Smith. Their computers kept logs of certain Freenet users' IP addresses and the codes for what they were downloading, according to the affidavit. Agents then compared the codes with a database they built of codes known to be child porn.
The difficulty lies with telling who ultimately downloaded the child porn because Freenet routes traffic through multiple computers on the Freenet network.
But BCI investigators were able to devise a way to tell which IP address--and consequently, which Freenet user--ultimately was downloading the offending files.
>>72325044
>justifying unconstitutional acts
C U C K
U
C
K
>>72325182
>Agents then compared the codes with a database they built of codes known to be child porn
they have child pron? arrest the lot of em
>>72319346
>>72321291
A dangerous precedent. What's to stop them from claiming anyone has child pornography so they can force you to disclose information? Sounds like a police state.
>>72325760
I'm surprised more pedophiles don't try and get into the anti pedo taskforces.
It'd be their dream job, they'd get to watch child porn legally all day.
Infact i'm sure statistically there must be at least one somewhere in the world.
>>72320540
First they came for the communists, but I stayed silent for I was not a communist.
Then they came for the blacks, but I stayed silent, for I was not a black.
Then they came for the Jews, but I stayed silent for I was not a jew.
Then they stopped coming after peoplebecause the problems were all solved.
>>72325182
When they say "downloading" do they mean both browsing the Freenet sites and downloading files to the hard drive? Or do they mean only downloading files to the hard drive?
From the perspective of the server, any server, on the clearnet or darknet, is browsing a webpage, including images, the same as downloading files to hard drive?
>>72326258
I think they'd consider downloading to be simply that, downloading.
Whether or not automatic or intentional it is posession of child pornography that is the crime, the act of downloading facilitates the crime and so logically if they know you've downloaded it then it is highly likely you're posessing it and that is where the charge will be coming from.
>>72322356
Not like it's much better here, mon ami.
>>72326468
Fair enough.
Is there a technical term for what I was trying to describe when browsing a website. What you see is sort of technically "downloading" if only partially and temporary.
>>72326258
>>72326468
Further to add to that when speaking with law professionals they say that people will skew the facts when reporting about those crimes and also in the courtroom.
Lets say you watch porn regularly and in your cache there are images of thousands of legal pornstars, and 3 of child porn.
Prosecution and journalists will report it as, "he had thousands of hardcore images on his computer among them some of the worst child porn some officers had seen".
It implies everything is child porn.
>>72326968
Yes if its stored in your internet cache it'd be considered downloading as i point out here.
>>72327009
>>72327059
Thanks for the information.
Was only a matter of time desu, we can't have the sheep have a way to hide information from the elites, now can we?
"ANONYMITY" NETWORKS STATUS:
BTFO!
T
F
O
!
Fuck y'all nazi pedos terrorists! The police's gonna get ya!
What if he honestly tried to argue he forgot the password? Shit, I have so many passwords for accounts I lose track sometimes.
>>72327501
Not sure about the software he was using but you can't use this excuse for alot of websites/applications as there tends to be a way to reset forgotten passwords.
I'd imagine that the software he is using must have that capability otherwise you'd just say you forgot the password.
Miranda rights do not apply. He has not been arested. He is disobeying a direct court order, therefore he can be jailed untill he complies. 5th ammendment only means that he cannot be forced to testify against himself in a court case, because he is not yet charged for anything, the fifth does not apply.
I think the court has found a loophole. If you can get incriminating encrypted media into police posession without charging the person based on their contents. He can be jailed until he divulges the password.
>>72328411
>he is not yet charged for anything, the fifth does not apply.
Wow. You bring up an interesting point..
>>72322356
Oui oui, je suis no liberte.
Eventually they will go to far
>>72325989
>First they came for conservatives but I stayed silent for I was a cuck
>then they came for the straight white males but I stayed silent for I was a cuck
>then they came for all the cis-gendered but I stayed silent for I was a cuck
>now privilege has been abolished, and I am a starving cuck
>>72328564
This is important, he is jailed for dissobeying a court order, not CP-possession. The problem is if taking his hard-drives was legal in the first place, or was that an unlawfull search and seizure.
>>72328411
They right to a fair and speedy trial = cannot be locked upped forever until such time, at courts own discretion
>>72330698
the court can order you to do something even if you have not been charged with a crime?
and you only have the right to remain silent, or to not incriminate yourself, after you've been charged?
Former Tor developer created malware for the FBI to hack Tor users
https://www.dailydot.com/politics/government-contractor-tor-malware/
A former Tor Project developer created malware for the Federal Bureau of Investigation that allowed agents to unmask users of the anonymity software.
Matt Edman is a cybersecurity expert who worked as a part-time employee at Tor Project, the nonprofit that builds Tor software and maintains the network, almost a decade ago.
Since then, he's developed potent malware used by law enforcement to unmask Tor users. It's been wielded in multiple investigations by federal law-enforcement and U.S. intelligence agencies in several high-profile cases.
“It has come to our attention that Matt Edman, who worked with the Tor Project until 2009, subsequently was employed by a defense contractor working for the FBI to develop anti-Tor malware,” the Tor Project confirmed in a statement after being contacted by the Daily Dot.
The Baylor University graduate ... wrote and contributed to research papers with the creators of Tor and helped other members in their work building privacy tools. According to the Tor Project, however, “Vidalia was the only Tor software to which Edman was able to commit changes.”
Tor dropped Vidalia in 2013, replacing it with other tools designed to improve the user experience.
By 2012, Edman was working at Mitre Corporation as a senior cybersecurity engineer assigned to the FBI's Remote Operations Unit, the bureau’s little-known internal team tapped to build or buy custom hacks and malware for spying on potential criminals. With an unparalleled pedigree established from his time inside the Tor Project, Edman became an FBI contractor tasked with hacking Tor as part of Operation Torpedo, a sting against three Dark Net child pornography sites that used Tor to cloak their owners and patrons.
>>72319346
Fuck pedophiles and all, but still.
>>72332524
At Mitre, Edman worked closely with FBI Special Agent Steven A. Smith to customize, configure, test, and deploy malware he called “Cornhusker” to collect identifying information on Tor users. More widely, it’s been known as Torsploit.
Cornhusker used a Flash application to deliver a user's real Internet Protocol (IP) address to an FBI server outside the Tor network. Cornhusker—so named because the University of Nebraska's nickname is the Cornhuskers—was placed on three servers owned by Nebraska man Aaron McGrath, whose arrest sparked the the larger anti-child-exploitation operation. The servers ran multiple anonymous child pornography websites.
The malware targeted the Flash inside the Tor Browser. The Tor Project has long warned against using Flash as unsafe but many people—including the dozens revealed in Operation Torpedo—often make security mistakes, just as they do with all types of software.
Operation Torpedo netted 19 convictions and counting, and it resulted in at least 25 de-anonymized individuals.
During the trial of Kirk Cottom, a 45-year-old from Rochester, New York, who would plead guilty to receiving and accessing with intent to view child pornography, the defense asked to see the source code—the human-readable code written by programmers that makes the software tick—behind Cornhusker. The defense wanted a look at the tool that pointed the finger at Cottom. The FBI said it lost the source code. Special Agent Smith insisted he never instructed anyone to destroy the code. The judge said the loss was “unfortunate” but “ultimately of little consequence.”
According to court documents, Cornhusker is no longer in use. Since then, newer FBI-funded malware has targeted a far wider scope of Tor users in the course of investigations. Both Cornhusker and newer techniques, dubbed bulk hacking, have been criticized for their lack of congressional or public oversight.
>>72332524
>>72332672
In addition to working on Operation Torpedo, Edman also did dozens of hours of work on the federal case against Silk Road, the first major Dark Net marketplace, and its convicted creator Ross Ulbricht. According to testimony, it was Edman who did the lion's share of the job tracing $13.4 million in bitcoins from Silk Road to Ulbricht's laptop, which played a key role in Ulbricht being convicted and sentenced to two life terms in federal prison. Edman worked as a senior director at FTI Consulting at the time.
The Tor malware Edman developed in Operation Torpedo for the FBI has been used in multiple “high-profile” investigations, according to a biography of Edman.
“He has been recognized within law enforcement and the United States Intelligence Community as a subject-matter expert on cyber investigations related to anonymous communication systems, such as Tor, and virtual currencies like Bitcoin,” notes his company biography for Berkley Research Group, where Edman works as director in New York. “As part of his work, he assembled and led an interdisciplinary team of researchers that developed a state-of-the-art network-investigative technique that was successfully deployed and provided critical intelligence in multiple high-profile law enforcement cyber investigations.”
Edman's résumé also includes a stint as a senior vulnerability engineer at Bloomberg L.P. in New York City, where he did penetration testing of the firm’s network. According to his biography, he also offers special expertise on subjects like Tor and Bitcoin.
Today, at Berkeley Research Group, Edman works next to former federal prosecutor Thomas Brown as well as three former FBI agents, all of whom worked on the Silk Road case directly with Edman: Thomas Kiernan, Ilhwan Yum, and Christopher Tarbell.
>>72332672
>>72332905
This is pretty fucked.
IP check
http://ip-check.info/?lang=en
>>72325950
i think a lot of the time they just throw any potential CP into a folder and hash-compare the files to a list of known CP.
probably only if the files don't match does anyone actually look at it. i imagine its so you don't get bombarded with it day in and day out if you're actually not a degenerate pedo.
>>72319346
It sickens me to think that the Supreme Court is using a 200 year old law to try to Jew their way into banning 21st century technology. This is truly madness.
>>72334708
I remember seeing a news report of a british operation and the officers involved had to physically watch vide and view images to try and track down pedophiles in different countries and save the sex slaves they were keeping.
It seems that when they want to safeguard a child they'll actually be forced to watch.
>>72319346
>he didnt use an encrypted drive as a red herring with an internal hidden encrypted partition
Deserved it.
Oh, and if he is a pedo, I hope his asshole gets resized about 5-10cm.
>>72319346
Bill Clinton told us how to deal with the federales: "I do not recall" [ the password ]
When that stops working there's always this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubberhose_%28file_system%29
>>72322123
Its easy to set up an encrypted partition which you have plausible deniability. Not going to post how, but the point is, if you're clever or spend 5 minutes googling, you can.
I just never bothered because the most illegal content I have is probably torrented game of thrones (didn't even seed it).
>>72322273
they can using patriot act laws. after all who knows if he's not a dangerous terrorishth right?
>>72332524
>>72332672
>>72332905
OH GOD YES! I'M CUMMING BUCKETS!
TORFAGS BTFO! FREENTEFAGS BTFO! PRIVACYFAGS ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY BLOWN THE FUCK OUT!
THIS IS A GREAT DAY! AND I'LL FAP TO THIS GREAT VICTORY OF THE FORCES OF GOOD FOR DAYS TO END!
>>72330980
Not charged. No trial upcomming. No right to a fair and speedy trial. Police state 1, constitutional rights 0.
>>72322123
Contempt of court is in theory eternal. In practice most judges will after a certain amount of time decide that holding the accused in contempt is not helping to compel them to cooperate and let them out. But that amount of time is up to the judge and one man served fourteen years in jail because his ex wife insisted he had hidden assets that she wanted while he claimed the wealth was lost in a business venture. The judge believed the ex-wife and thought the man was hiding assets. Only after fourteen years did the judge finally decide that keeping the man in jail wasn't going to compel him to produce the assets the ex-wife wanted and freed him.
>>72334862
>forced to watch.
Yeah
>forced.
>>72336962
Jesus Christ. I fucking hate people. Even if the guy was the biggest asshole in the world, 14 years to have what is most likely HIS assets handed over to some cunt. JUSTICE
Encrypt all day erry day!
Eventually the Supreme Court will crack down on these local judges once these cases get out of hand. Or shit will keep happening and give more ammo to the anti-gov crowd.
I hate judges, lawyers, courts, and the justice system more than I do pedophiles.
>>72338274
I feel sorry for you guys, your legal system is so fucking corrupt.
Like politicians are arguing about replacing one of the supreme court justices because everyone know they impart political bias into verdicts.
When really they should be making verdicts based on the letter of the law.
>>72339007
How does the UK prevent that kind of thing from happening in your court system?
Blatantly unconstitutional.
This is gonna get thrown out so hard on it's ass man...
>>72339007
It's just as bad over here you know. Not providing the police with passwords will still get you prison time
>>72319346
That looks like a pretty sweet racetrack
>>72339179
There is a separation of our high court from politics, the high court judges are elected from a commission that is made up or lawyers.
Basically its all left up to the legal profession, no interference from the political sphere. Of course a judge can still impart bias, but the fact that there is such a separation between political parties and judges means that it is far less likely to happen.
>>72339388
Thats not the point I was making.
>>72336962
If I was that man Id either kill the judge or sue the government for a million dollars a year.
>>72339304
The Mongolian makes some good points on why it may not be unconstitutional:
>>72328411
>>72330698
There is precedent for imprisoning a person without them ever being charged with a crime:
>>72336962
fuck this shit
the internet should never have been invented, it's degenerate and only complicates every part of society and enables all sorts of degeneracy and subversion. The bad outweighs the good
>>72339007
Ausfag here. Theirs is corrupted and it is a shame because their constitution, bill of rights are uniquely fucking kickass. The only thing stopping us from being stomped on in the invasion along with Europe is distance, because our laws do not allow people to adequately protect themselves.
>>72337781
Was probably a female judge, women don't have an innate sense of right and wrong only a learned one
>>72340652
This fact lead to the postulation that they don't have souls
This is a good thing.
Although is am pro-holocaust revisionism, which is often unjustly criminalized.
In principle, i am against freed speech.
If the holocaust obviously happened exactly as they say it happened, then indeed people who deny it should be criminalized.
To comment on this cp case. I am pretty sure the judge had looked at the possibility that the guy just forgot the password. Judging by the reasons the pedophile gave them why he would not give his password, forgetting the password not being one of the reasons, which makes the possibility that the pedophile forgot his password, extremely unlikely.
He did not forget his password. And it is a good thing that he is now locked up untill he reveals his password to further the investigation on the charges against him.
Fuck free speech.
>>72339965
There is still a lot of potential in the interet that has not yet been fully utilized.
>>72341532
It puts the lotion on its skin.
>My hdd is set up in a way that wrong password rewrites all data with 00000000
>>72341532
wew lad
seems like someone crawled out of the toothpaste tube to get edgy on a mongolian tapestry forum
>>72341532
Totally agree with you.
Speech should be heavily regulated in all contexts
