Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates

Child advocates and civil liberty groups worried about ‘government-
grade’ BlackArmour hard drive.

David Ramli (PC World Australia (online)) 13/10/2008 15:18:00

Seagate’s new “government-grade” encrypted hard drive is a cause for
concern, according to Braveheart, Australia’s best known child
protection advocacy group. The 320GB Seagate Maxtor BlackArmour
portable hard drive can store up to 102,400 images, uses 256-bit AES
encryption to prevent unauthorised access and is currently considered
virtually unbreakable without access to the password.

“What we’ve seen in the investigations and the positive outcomes from
online pornography cases are that they’ve only been able to get the
prosecutions because of the information stored on hard drives”, said
Carol Ronken, research manager at Braveheart. “I would be really
concerned about the implications of this type of equipment on the
outcome of police investigations and ultimately child protection.”

Michael Pearce SC, vice-president of the Victorian Council for Civil
Liberties, is also worried about the device, despite the increase in
privacy it would provide for legitimate users. “I think the concern of
police and other groups is justified. It will make it harder for
police to effectively interrogate hard drives and find improper
material on the hard drive”, said Pearce.

“We don’t think that privacy issues or freedom of expression issues
justifies having access to child pornography”, he said.

Andrew Younger, Senior Security Consultant for Senetas, says that
although the encryption used on the BlackArmour can theoretically be
broken, Australian authorities don’t have the technology required.

“AES is probably the benchmark for the foreseeable future from a
government and commercial point of view. We use it and it’s assumed to
be very secure and very difficult to crack”, said Younger.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mick Nolan from the Victoria Police E-Crime
Squad refused to comment on whether or not encryption negatively
affected police investigations, but noted they were aware of the
issue.

Henk van der Berg, Seagate’s director of South Asia sales and
marketing, believes that governments are ultimately responsible in
regards to making ethical decisions on the availability and subsequent
use of these drives. "We are impartial. If the government makes a new
law then we will follow it. We don't have an ethical point of view",
said Van der Berg.

According to a spokesman for the Federal Attorney-General, Robert
McClelland, the current legislation governing encryption is adequate.
"There are appropriate legislative provisions available to law
enforcement agencies to require the disclosure of information in an
accessible form", he said. The spokesman added that laws that covered
devices like hard drives should balance national security, law
enforcement and privacy considerations.

The Federal Liberal Party has requested a briefing on the issue from
the Government and has declined to respond until after it is provided.

Ronken is less equivocal and believes that the release of products
like the BlackArmour into the consumer market should be carefully
evaluated. “We need to be helping police and the criminal justice
system and this type of product will only impact negatively on their
ability to investigate electronic crime”, she said.

Pearce feels that a product ban would not achieve results. “You could
ban the sales of these items but people will get hold of them anyhow …
put your efforts into cracking the device rather than banning the sale
of it”, he Pearce.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;283026490

****
WM
www.critest.com

Webmanager_CritEst wrote:
> Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates
>
> Child advocates and civil liberty groups worried about ‘government-
> grade’ BlackArmour hard drive.
>
> David Ramli (PC World Australia (online)) 13/10/2008 15:18:00
>
> Seagate’s new “government-grade” encrypted hard drive is a cause for
> concern, according to Braveheart, Australia’s best known child
> protection advocacy group. The 320GB Seagate Maxtor BlackArmour
> portable hard drive can store up to 102,400 images, uses 256-bit AES
> encryption to prevent unauthorised access and is currently considered
> virtually unbreakable without access to the password.

GCHQ apparently crack these things for fun during quiet periods.

-- 
Criticising the government is not illegal, but on investigation often
turns out to be linked to other offences

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:41:11 -0700, Webmanager_CritEst wrote:

> Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates
> 
> Child advocates and civil liberty groups worried about ‘government-
> grade’ BlackArmour hard drive.
> 
> David Ramli (PC World Australia (online)) 13/10/2008 15:18:00
> 
> Seagate’s new “government-grade” encrypted hard drive is a cause for
> concern, according to Braveheart, Australia’s best known child
> protection advocacy group. The 320GB Seagate Maxtor BlackArmour portable
> hard drive can store up to 102,400 images, uses 256-bit AES encryption
> to prevent unauthorised access and is currently considered virtually
> unbreakable without access to the password.
> 
> “What we’ve seen in the investigations and the positive outcomes from
> online pornography cases are that they’ve only been able to get the
> prosecutions because of the information stored on hard drives”, said
> Carol Ronken, research manager at Braveheart. “I would be really
> concerned about the implications of this type of equipment on the
> outcome of police investigations and ultimately child protection.”
> 
> Michael Pearce SC, vice-president of the Victorian Council for Civil
> Liberties, is also worried about the device, despite the increase in
> privacy it would provide for legitimate users. “I think the concern of
> police and other groups is justified. It will make it harder for police
> to effectively interrogate hard drives and find improper material on the
> hard drive”, said Pearce.
> 
> “We don’t think that privacy issues or freedom of expression issues
> justifies having access to child pornography”, he said.
> 
> Andrew Younger, Senior Security Consultant for Senetas, says that
> although the encryption used on the BlackArmour can theoretically be
> broken, Australian authorities don’t have the technology required.
> 
> “AES is probably the benchmark for the foreseeable future from a
> government and commercial point of view. We use it and it’s assumed to
> be very secure and very difficult to crack”, said Younger.
> 
> Detective Senior Sergeant Mick Nolan from the Victoria Police E-Crime
> Squad refused to comment on whether or not encryption negatively
> affected police investigations, but noted they were aware of the issue.
> 
> Henk van der Berg, Seagate’s director of South Asia sales and marketing,
> believes that governments are ultimately responsible in regards to
> making ethical decisions on the availability and subsequent use of these
> drives. "We are impartial. If the government makes a new law then we
> will follow it. We don't have an ethical point of view", said Van der
> Berg.
> 
> According to a spokesman for the Federal Attorney-General, Robert
> McClelland, the current legislation governing encryption is adequate.
> "There are appropriate legislative provisions available to law
> enforcement agencies to require the disclosure of information in an
> accessible form", he said. The spokesman added that laws that covered
> devices like hard drives should balance national security, law
> enforcement and privacy considerations.
> 
> The Federal Liberal Party has requested a briefing on the issue from the
> Government and has declined to respond until after it is provided.
> 
> Ronken is less equivocal and believes that the release of products like
> the BlackArmour into the consumer market should be carefully evaluated.
> “We need to be helping police and the criminal justice system and this
> type of product will only impact negatively on their ability to
> investigate electronic crime”, she said.
> 
> Pearce feels that a product ban would not achieve results. “You could
> ban the sales of these items but people will get hold of them anyhow …
> put your efforts into cracking the device rather than banning the sale
> of it”, he Pearce.
> 
> http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;283026490
> 
> ****
> WM
> www.critest.com


The information is probably false, given out to the press to announce for 
setting up a sting operation.

Any system hardrive can be encrypted to high military standards.

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:01:45 +0100, Steve Walker wrote:

> Webmanager_CritEst wrote:
>> Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates
>>
>> Child advocates and civil liberty groups worried about ‘government-
>> grade’ BlackArmour hard drive.
>>
>> David Ramli (PC World Australia (online)) 13/10/2008 15:18:00
>>
>> Seagate’s new “government-grade” encrypted hard drive is a cause for
>> concern, according to Braveheart, Australia’s best known child
>> protection advocacy group. The 320GB Seagate Maxtor BlackArmour portable
>> hard drive can store up to 102,400 images, uses 256-bit AES encryption
>> to prevent unauthorised access and is currently considered virtually
>> unbreakable without access to the password.
> 
> GCHQ apparently crack these things for fun during quiet periods.

Do they bollox.

-- 
   ___  _______   ___    ___  ___  __  ____
  / _ \/ __/ _ | / _ \  / _ \/ _ |/ / / / /
 / // / _// __ |/ // / / ___/ __ / /_/ / /__
/____/___/_/ |_/____/ /_/  /_/ |_\____/____/

"Webmanager_CritEst"  wrote in message 
news:238290f7-2f36-4617-9e3b-040bcf2f46e9@f37g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates

Child advocates and civil liberty groups worried about ‘government-
grade’ BlackArmour hard drive.

David Ramli (PC World Australia (online)) 13/10/2008 15:18:00

Seagate’s new “government-grade” encrypted hard drive is a cause for
concern, according to Braveheart, Australia’s best known child
protection advocacy group. The 320GB Seagate Maxtor BlackArmour
portable hard drive can store up to 102,400 images, uses 256-bit AES
encryption to prevent unauthorised access and is currently considered
virtually unbreakable without access to the password.

---------------

... as can any common or garden hard drive using the likes of Truecrypt.

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:41:11 -0700 (PDT), Webmanager_CritEst
 wrote:

>Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates

The government likes to keep things secret from the population, but
doesn't like it when the shoe's on the other foot.

As with many things, the government is playing the "child protection"
line to justify banning something that it doesn't like.  Expect to see
the "terrorist threat" line used as well.

And the people with their knickers in a twist are obviously woefully
ignorant of computer technology.  Anyone who wants to have an
encrypted hard disk has been able to make one via software
applications for many years - no need to pay Seagate's premium for a
hardware solution.

-- 
Cynic

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:01:45 +0100, "Steve Walker"
 wrote:

>> Seagate’s new “government-grade” encrypted hard drive is a cause for
>> concern, according to Braveheart, Australia’s best known child
>> protection advocacy group. The 320GB Seagate Maxtor BlackArmour
>> portable hard drive can store up to 102,400 images, uses 256-bit AES
>> encryption to prevent unauthorised access and is currently considered
>> virtually unbreakable without access to the password.

>GCHQ apparently crack these things for fun during quiet periods.

I know.  When they get bored of cracking 256 bit AES encryption, they
play around with their teleport machine and anti-gravity devices.
Obviously all very hush-hush, so don't tell anyone.

-- 
Cynic

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:11:51 +0100, Cynic wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:41:11 -0700 (PDT), Webmanager_CritEst
>  wrote:
> 
>>Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates
> 
> The government likes to keep things secret from the population, but
> doesn't like it when the shoe's on the other foot.
> 
> As with many things, the government is playing the "child protection" line
> to justify banning something that it doesn't like.  Expect to see the
> "terrorist threat" line used as well.
> 
> And the people with their knickers in a twist are obviously woefully
> ignorant of computer technology.  Anyone who wants to have an encrypted
> hard disk has been able to make one via software applications for many
> years - no need to pay Seagate's premium for a hardware solution.

Who'd trust Seagate encryption anyway? As a manufacturer they'll be in
cahoots with western governments over it that's for sure.

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:11:51 +0100, Cynic 
wrote:

>On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:41:11 -0700 (PDT), Webmanager_CritEst
> wrote:
>
>>Seagate hard drive encryption worries child advocates
>
>The government likes to keep things secret from the population, but
>doesn't like it when the shoe's on the other foot.
>
>As with many things, the government is playing the "child protection"
>line to justify banning something that it doesn't like.  Expect to see
>the "terrorist threat" line used as well.

Bingo!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3215115/Terrorists-use-child-porn-to-exchange-information.html

MM