British Govt vs Lauri Love, it’s battle for encryption keys

The British Government is attempting to force the hacktivist Lauri Love to hand over his encryption keys to access data stored in his seized laptop.

Lauri Love is the hacktivist accused of breaking into Government networks, now the UK NCA wants to oblige him to hand over encryption keys to equipment seized from his home.

The hacktivist started a legal action against the NCA to attempt to have his property returned.

The list of victims of the hacktivist includes the FBI, the Federal Reserve Bank and the US Missile Defence Agency.

US Prosecutors believe that Lauri Love is a member of a hacker crew, they sustain that he was also involved in the hacking campaign the OpLastResort launched by Anonymous against the US Government.

Anonymous threatened the US Government due to its position against the young talented hacktivist Aaron Swartz. Aaron Swartz  has committed suicide on January 11, 2013 in New York City. He is fighting extradition to the US where authorities can condemn him to up to 99-years in prison.

On that occasion, the US legal system demonstrated its inefficiency in the treatment of hacktivist.

The Home Office is seeking a court order in the form of a ‘direction’ in the civil proceeding against Love. If Love will refuse to comply with the direction he will be charged with contempt of court.

“Love is also being ordered to provide witness statements informing the court whether two particular files encrypted with TrueCrypt software contain data from the US Senate and Department of Energy.” reported the British Computing website. 

“I don’t have any alternative but to refuse to comply,” Love told The Intercept. “The NCA are trying to establish a precedent so that an executive body — i.e., the police — can take away your computers and if they are unable to comprehend certain portions of data held on them, then you lose the right to retain them. It’s a presumption of guilt for random data.”

Today Lauri Love appeared in a London court as NCA attempts to get his encryption keys, but the judgment in the encryption demand case is reserved until 10 May.

Love’s advocates remarked that the hacktivist did not profit from the attacks he participated.

The authorities have no intention to return the seized laptop, they augmented their decision sustaining that the device contains pirated films.

Stay Tuned.

 

 

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Lauri Love, hacking)

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