Two years ago I posted an article that has been fairly popular, Encryption and Key Demands. The phrase 'duress key' seems to drive the traffic there, even though I'm not the one who coined the term. Anyway, a real-life example of that has shown up.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/24/ripa_jfl/
UK jails schizophrenic for refusal to decrypt files
You don't fork over your decryption keys on demand, you get jail time just for that! As I said two years ago, this is a lot harder to pull off in the US due to that whole Bill of Rights thing. Harder, but not impossible.
It sounds really bad, but apparently there's some thought to it.The Appeal Court decided that the encryption key has an "independent existence", and it's not something that in you personally can hide.So they reasoned you should turn it over the same way you can not resist giving blood/DNA samples, just because then they may be able to incriminate you.I'm not saying I agree with it, but it does make some sense.
From JFL.A private key is data. It can therefore be hidden easily. See the example of the government taking *_every_item_* that I own (including the $600 shirt from my back and keeping them for nine months) and still not finding 'the key'. A micro uSD card can store gigs of data inside very small places. The Earth is a very large place. My tip is to think of the Butterfly Effect of chaotic systems, a large effect can be made through... Then there's steganography.You can protect your data, your privacy, with the help of the cryptographic industry. You cannot protect yourself (at least it's quite difficult) against law enforcement reprisal. The UK, a smallish island with a fallen empire, is one of the core five players (UNSC) on our planet. This new, evil law matters to us *all*. They've just ended their nine months imprisonment of myself, in five more I'll be allowed to leave their island and in some years they wont even force disclosure of their view of myself as a criminal. The RIPA charges gained a nine months sentence but the 100% made up charges of telling a false statement for a passport gained one year.Dictionaries keep the language clear and laws keep the lines of right and wrong clear. The 5th Ammendment is clear. We need our laws to be just, to instill our rights not erode them. The right to be silent. The right not to self-incriminate. Computing rights.My book 'Bit' is to be published soon.From JFL