Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: PC, Camera, Encryption, Video, Peephole | Themes: Software, Audio/Video Players
A peeping tom escapes long-term jail time thanks to data encryption.
An Australian man pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to visually record one of his female roommates yesterday in Southport District Court. The man, 39-year-old Rohan James Wyllie, apparently established a sophisticated network of peepholes and cameras to spy on the female anywhere in the flat without her consent.
Wyllie's roommates--two women and one man--eventually grew suspicious of his actions after discovering (camera) lights shining through the peepholes in dark rooms. The roommates said that that they also heard buzzing electronic noises in the walls, thus leading them to call the police.
When the police arrived, they discovered the network of concealed cameras mounted in the ceilings and walls leading back to Wyllie's computer, however the devices were not connected to the PC. The police thus seized the computer and realized that the files were encrypted to a degree that they could not crack the code. Ultimately, the police could not prove that Wyllie actually recorded footage of the roommates.
Defense attorney Michael Byrne said that Wyllie suffered from schizophrenia, and established the system of cameras because he thought they were conspiring against him. According to News.com.au, the judge took into account the 33 days Wyllie already served in jail and decided to put him on two years probation.
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Truecrypt. Good stuff, although it prevents guys like these from serving their due time under law.
Since when schizophrenic people are less dangerous than peeping toms?
It's just perfect his name is Wyllie (assuming the y is pronounced as an I of course)
In the UK he would have been banged up for not handing over the keys!
have you ever met a paranoid person, this is a prime example, if the world is out to get you, you try to find out what the world is up to, its not like the cameras were in the bathrooms alone, remember "Mad Money" the bathroom is the perfect place to conspire, the dude is not a perv, more power to him.
Keyword: defense attorney. Lawyers are too screwed up to realize what is right and what is wrong, thus being an enabler to dangerous people such as this Wyllie (whose name I chuckled at.)
I'm going to encrypt everything from now on ,just to be safe.
It's just perfect his name is Wyllie (assuming the y is pronounced as an I of course)
"Super Genius"
I'm going to encrypt everything from now on ,just to be safe.
Encryption was only part of it. The real thing that saved this guy is that the cameras were NOT connected to the pc when they found it. If they would have found the cameras connected then they would have probably charged him no matter what, encryption or not. With no connections to the camera, the prosecution would have a hard time proving that the perv was using the hardware to record anything...even though common sense would tell you he has terabytes of showering and pooping videos.
yeah, thats how i escaped justice to. My gun was not loaded . and not in my holster.
Wall-eye... hehe...
How can you trust a man named Rohan James "Wyllie"
In the UK he would have been banged up for not handing over the keys!
If you're savvy enough to encrypt your harddrive, then I suspect a criminal in the UK would simply use Truecrypt's hidden encrypted volume feature. That way, he could give the police one key, after putting on a good show of refusing to comply, and they would still have nothing to charge him with.
In the U.S., they are still debating the legality of trying to force someone to give up an encryption passphrase. The 5th Amendment of our Constitution provides, among other things, protection against self-incrimination. Defense attorneys have taken the position that the contents of someones own mind, to include encryption passphrases, are thus protected. While I hate to see criminals get away with things. From a privacy standpoint, I believe this is a correct interpretation of the law.
@Jellico
I agree, however I take it one step further. I don't even know my own passwords, so even if I was beaten/given some type of truth syrum I still couldn't tell them anything. How is this done? ...maybe I shouldn't say
P.S. my passphrases are about 31 characters long
The police? They are doing the decrypt? wow that's not right lol... you need a hacker instead.
lol true crypt is some really amazing tech. And it would take a super computer to crack the encryption, and the AUS police don't have much access to those for these lesser crimes.
lol true crypt is some really amazing tech. And it would take a super computer to crack the encryption, and the AUS police don't have much access to those for these lesser crimes.
I was thinking the same thing too...What do those little piggy's know about Hacking into files.Sucks the dude go off Scott free though
@JellicoI agree, however I take it one step further. I don't even know my own passwords, so even if I was beaten/given some type of truth syrum I still couldn't tell them anything. How is this done? ...maybe I shouldn't say P.S. my passphrases are about 31 characters long
The problem with this is if you dont even know your own passphrase then you must have it written down somewhere
there is something new coming i dunno exact details but its said to encrypt any data 24/7 365 to infinity even with power off it just starts up where it left off
@JellicoI agree, however I take it one step further. I don't even know my own passwords, so even if I was beaten/given some type of truth syrum I still couldn't tell them anything. How is this done? ...maybe I shouldn't say P.S. my passphrases are about 31 characters long
Actually, I'm intrigued. Send me a private message, I'm always interested in other people's ideas for improved computer security.
I use really long pass-phrases myself (typically a jumbled of phrases that are mispelled, spelled phonetically, substituting numbers for letters, etc.), and I always encourage my clients to do the same.
if you want to get really paranoid about it maybe he was streaming the video to some off site recorder in case the police ever crashed his place. The encrypted computer files were just to throw them off the trail!
Creepy
If you want to protct your informatioin, encrypt the fuck out of it, and in case anything happens, destroy your key.
They couldn't get it if they wanted to.
Though we will always see some type of abuse, I do believe in an uncrackablle encryption that has no intentional backdoor (having a backdoor in the first place completely defeats the purpose).
so he did 33 days and gets 2 years probation for "attempting to visually record" one his roommates?
i guess that's illegal in AUS? the guy sounds a bit pathetic, sure, but i bet as long as he split the royalties fairly nobody wouldve complained.
i'd be interested in hearing what he was using to edit all that footage together, too. i mean, if he uses interesting encryption then maybe he uses interesting post production tools too?
cops i know (at the local level) say they often dont need or even attempt to break encryption to prove illegal activity. its about relationships and transfer of money. if these AUS cops were a bit more patient, watched and listened longer, perhaps they couldve really got their man. so instead of getting him for "attempting to record" they couldve got him for "really recording" which i would hope is at least a week longer in the slammmer.
certainly not the crime of the century.