Merely Cloaking Data May Be Incriminating? 418
n0g writes "In a recent submission to Bugtraq, Larry Gill of Guidance Software refutes some bug reports for the forensic analysis product EnCase Forensic Edition. The refutation is interesting, but one comment raises an important privacy issue. When talking about users creating loops in NTFS directories to hide data, Gill says, 'The purposeful hiding of data by the subject of an investigation is in itself important evidence and there are many scenarios where intentional data cloaking provides incriminating evidence, even if the perpetrator is successful in cloaking the data itself.' That begs the question: if one cloaks data by encrypting it, exactly what incriminating evidence does that provide? And how important is that evidence compared to the absence of anything else found that was incriminating? Are we no longer allowed to have any secrets, even on our own systems?"
But Comrade... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Other types of cloaking... (Score:5, Funny)
A real cloaking device?? (Score:1, Funny)
Slashdot is truly the breeding ground of new technologies.
Encrypt random noise. Lose the keys. (Score:5, Funny)
I encourage everyone to generate files containing nothing but random noise, encrypt those files, and throw away the key. If everyone does this then they can't tell what is a real encrypted file and what isn't. For good measure email some of these random files back and forth with suspicious subject lines.
Re:Why even ask? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Easy solution (Score:4, Funny)
Man, if that's not true, I think many slashdotters will have to rethink how they hide their porn from their wives... Ok, from their mothers.
It works like this... (Score:5, Funny)
The government, being a public institution, has to keep everything it does private. That's why you are not allowed to see their secret files.
But a citizen, being a private individual, has to keep everything they do public. That's why the government must be able to see your secret files.
Got it?
Re:Other types of cloaking... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Encrypt random noise. Lose the keys. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Guilty until proven innocent (Score:1, Funny)
Heh, glad you're not my lawyer. :)