BBC Online 24/3/2000: "MI5 laptop snatched"

[Owen Lewis]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barnaby Prendergast" <ybanrab@hotmail.com>
To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Sent: 27 March 2000 15:00
Subject: Re: BBC Online 24/3/2000: "MI5 laptop snatched"


> >From: "Owen Lewis" <oml@eloka.demon.co.uk>
> >Reply-To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
> >To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
> >Subject: Re: BBC Online 24/3/2000: "MI5 laptop snatched"
> >Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 11:26:49 +0100
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Barnaby Prendergast" <ybanrab@hotmail.com>
> >To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
> >Sent: 24 March 2000 18:48
> >Subject: Re: BBC Online 24/3/2000: "MI5 laptop snatched"
> >
> > > I thought it was common knowledge that the police regularly *lose*, is
> > > such a term is not too narrowly construed, things. They have been
> > > known also to damage and inadvertantly destroy evidence that they
> > > hold.
> > > Oh, and how much of the seized  information held will be kept by them,
> > > or will they be sending this information to "trusted" third parties
> > > for processing? I think we should be told...
> >
> >Why? You know the answer. Find yourself the subject of a serious criminal
> >investigation and you may fairly assume that experts not employed within
> >the
> >Police Service will examine numerous items.  Find youself duly charged
and
> >the number of persons fiddling about in your business will rise markedly,
> >to
> >include a whole sheaf of lawyers, court officials and defence experts.
> >
> >What point do you make?
> >
> >Owen
>
> Point being that if MI5 can be duped in public by "children", there is
> not an awful lot of hope for the AT&T chaps's keys being secure in an
> un-security-savvy third party's hands whilst they decrypt his clients'
> data because plod can't figure out how to use PGP.
>
> As an aside, who wants to bet that the passphrase for the MI5 laptop
> was his mother's maiden name?;-)

Well you are entitled to your view, of course. Do you know any of the people
who do such work?

Owen