Formerly, powerful encryption techniques have only been available within military and academic circles. The computer revolution has put this resource into any users hands. This includes anti-government dissidents and terrorists. Even without attempting to hid the message, encrypted data is also similar in appearance to random data.

Governments may have the power to break strong encryption, but that ability would be of the highest secrecy. It would therefore hardly be used except in the most extreme cases. Rather than breaking the code (or admitting to breaking it), the UK government passed The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). This enables them to require people to hand over their encryption keys. If the user does not comply, they face up to 2 years in prison. Apparently “I forgot the password” is not a valid defense against this.

What is worrying is that most files on your computer are potential stores for hidden or encrypted data. If you are asked for the passwords, you MUST provide the password or face prison. You cannot prove that there isn’t data being hidden! If you are falsely accused, you go to prison.

This is not a hypothetical situation. There is an animal rights activist who claims is facing this dilemma.

Anti Citizen One

PS. Orwell’s big brother was an amateur compared to these people…