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If I'm understanding vbezhenar correctly, the implied step after uploading the encrypted file to a cloud storage service is to securely delete it from the compu

If I'm understanding vbezhenar correctly, the implied step after uploading the encrypted file to a cloud storage service is to securely delete it from the computer you're carrying. Then, the authorities won't know that there is anything to beat out of you with their $5 wrench.

ineedasername 7y ago
Yeah, but you still get beat with the $5 wrench. And if it was going to work in compelling you to give the password, it will still be pretty effective getting you to provide access to the cloud storage and the encryption password to it.
- stale2002 7y ago
  How does the low paid border security drone even know you have a cloud storage account? What country do you live in that has to worry about people being tortured to death on a frequent basis? This stuff just doesn't happen often, despite what a silly XKCD comic would lead you to believe. Encryption actually works pretty damn well, for basically all usecases that a normal person would come across. The world is not a James Bond spy move.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    You're not going to be tortured to death, but there are quite a few things that the government can do to make your life miserable.
    - mortenjorck 7y ago
      The $5 wrench isn’t what most people have to worry about; it’s the 5-hour detention without charge.
      - ddalex 7y ago
        5 hour detention is nothing - expensed vacation :) Extraordinary rendition to the Guantanamo Bay is what concerns me.
    - incompatible 7y ago
      Maybe also have some relatively uninteresting encrypted files which you can hand over in this situation?
  - ineedasername 7y ago
    I'm not saying any of this is likely. But, as the topic was raised, if they break you and you start talking, you will volunteer the information. They don't need to know before hand. That said, the most practical scenario here is to keep your important files secured somewhere else, cloud or elsewhere, and when they ask you to unlock your phone or laptop you say "Sure!" Because there's nothing to find and you're compliant and helpful so they quickly let you go after a proforma search.
  - chupasaurus 7y ago
    > The world is not a James Bond spy move. Yeah, there is no James Bond outside the books and screen. But thermorectal cryptanalysis is out there and still beats most of cyphers with ease. And it's not letal!
- dmurray 7y ago
  A couple of people would get beaten with the wrench the first few times it happened, but after a few weeks and a few high profile cases from Fortune 500 employees of "my CIO is the only one with the key", they'd move on to other targets or other methods.
- zzo38computer 7y ago
  But it will not work if you do not know the password. (It can also be time locked with false data; they don't know whether or not it is the real data.)

ineedasername 7y ago

Yeah, but you still get beat with the $5 wrench. And if it was going to work in compelling you to give the password, it will still be pretty effective getting you to provide access to the cloud storage and the encryption password to it.

stale2002 7y ago
How does the low paid border security drone even know you have a cloud storage account? What country do you live in that has to worry about people being tortured to death on a frequent basis? This stuff just doesn't happen often, despite what a silly XKCD comic would lead you to believe. Encryption actually works pretty damn well, for basically all usecases that a normal person would come across. The world is not a James Bond spy move.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  You're not going to be tortured to death, but there are quite a few things that the government can do to make your life miserable.
  - mortenjorck 7y ago
    The $5 wrench isn’t what most people have to worry about; it’s the 5-hour detention without charge.
    - ddalex 7y ago
      5 hour detention is nothing - expensed vacation :) Extraordinary rendition to the Guantanamo Bay is what concerns me.
  - incompatible 7y ago
    Maybe also have some relatively uninteresting encrypted files which you can hand over in this situation?
- ineedasername 7y ago
  I'm not saying any of this is likely. But, as the topic was raised, if they break you and you start talking, you will volunteer the information. They don't need to know before hand. That said, the most practical scenario here is to keep your important files secured somewhere else, cloud or elsewhere, and when they ask you to unlock your phone or laptop you say "Sure!" Because there's nothing to find and you're compliant and helpful so they quickly let you go after a proforma search.
- chupasaurus 7y ago
  > The world is not a James Bond spy move. Yeah, there is no James Bond outside the books and screen. But thermorectal cryptanalysis is out there and still beats most of cyphers with ease. And it's not letal!
dmurray 7y ago
A couple of people would get beaten with the wrench the first few times it happened, but after a few weeks and a few high profile cases from Fortune 500 employees of "my CIO is the only one with the key", they'd move on to other targets or other methods.
zzo38computer 7y ago
But it will not work if you do not know the password. (It can also be time locked with false data; they don't know whether or not it is the real data.)