jamiephelps.com

UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time:

New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

Having just given a cursory presentation on government efforts to suppress encryption and legislate or otherwise require the use of encryption that allows government easy access to the plain text, this is a troublesome proposition. I imagine it won’t be long until the States tries something similar. Hopefully, backlash from industry experts, privacy advocates, big business, and other constituents (You hear that, politicians? That means the people that put you into office.) will be strong enough to prevent the passing of such a bill here. It’s always nice when such disparate parties can come together against a common enemy.

(Via Ars Technica.)