More on "Encryption As Evidence of Criminal Intent"
I recently wrote about a Minnesota Appeals Court ruling that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent. Jennifer Granick of the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society has some intelligent comments on the ruling.
Kenneth Ballard • June 9, 2005 9:18 AM
The comment that using encryption software is a sign of criminal intent is a little hasty. PGP has another capability that I think was ignored in comments but probably presented at trial. PGP has the ability to wipe files using DoD standards or better. This could mean that not only could he have been encrypting the pictures to send them elsewhere, but he could also have been wiping them from his hard drive using PGP’s file wipe feature.