Monday, October 27, 2008

"Rubber Hose Cryptanalysis"

Cryptographers use this term to refer to breaking a cipher by beating the key out of someone who knows it.  Apparently, despite assurances that "torture doesn't work", Rubber Hose Cryptography (RHK)does work. 
According to comments allegedly made by Howard Cox, a US Department of Justice official in a closed-door meeting last week, after being frustrated with the disk encryption employed by Yastremskiy, Turkish law enforcement may have resorted to physical violence to force the password out of the Ukrainian suspect.

Mr Cox's revelation came in the context of a joke made during his speech. While the exact words were not recorded, multiple sources have verified that Cox quipped about leaving a stubborn suspect alone with Turkish police for a week as a way to get them to voluntarily reveal their password. The specifics of the interrogation techniques were not revealed, but all four people I spoke to stated that it was clear that physical coercion was the implied method.

Well, since professional interrogators assure one and all that "torture doesn't work", and RHK apparently does work, maybe it's not torture.

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