Mass arrests after BlackBerry cracked five years after seizure

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/silver-bullet-mass-arrests-after-blackberry-cracked-five-years-after-seizure-20200731-p55hbq.html

by CPAhem • 6 years ago

37 8 6 years ago

smh.com.au

jaimex2• 6 years ago

Wonder how many cases out there are time locked for when the cracking tech catches up. A case where some pedos encrypted their disks come to mind.

edude03• 6 years ago

This is the general problem with committing a crime - the authorities have forever to solve the crime, whereas you only have a limited amount of time in which you can commit the crime and "get away" with it.

This is true for things like encryption where once the encrypted data is captured it will eventually possible to decrypt it as technology advances, as well as things like murders, where new evidence may randomly come to light, or new technology can better analyze old evidence.

labawi• 6 years ago

AFAIK most crimes in most "western"-like countries have a statute of limitations, after which you cannot be charged - say 5 / 10 years for light stuff, then 20 / 30 / maybe forever for more serious stuff, homicide and such.

EDIT: Important caveat - if they classify it as continuing violations, the time of the last one matters - though they still need to prove something in the acceptable time period.

DEADBEEFC0FFEE• 6 years ago

I don't really understand vwhy people who need to encrypt thing to stop from going to prison, don't encrypt multiple times using different algorithms. Surely that buys centuries of time.

cwhiz• 6 years ago

Statute of limitations. At some point, the clock really does run out. Varies widely from state to state, and I would assume, country to country.

rjkennedy98• 6 years ago

Wish they would clarify what caused the 5 year delay. Were they running a password solver algorithm the whole time or were there major advances in technology that allowed them to crack the encryption?

bitminer• 6 years ago

Because it took five years for an email from Canadian police to arrive in Australia.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/outrageous-rcmp-can-unlock-bla...

A news report from April 2016.

Mass arrests after BlackBerry cracked five years after seizure

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