Pertingo Computer Support

A federal judge in Colorado recently ruled that a woman charged in a mortgage scam must give up the password to her encrypted hard drive or face contempt charges. While the woman, Ramona Fricosu, claims that handing over the password violates her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, the judge doesn't believe it applies. I assume this is because the judge has been living in a cave for the past decade! I can't think of another reason why a decision like this can be justified. Ms Fricosu wouldn't be compelled to present the password if she'd kept these records in a diary in an encrypted form so why is the decision different because her diary of choice was a Toshiba laptop?

While I have to believe that sharper minds will prevail in the end, this ruling illustrates a point that I often make with my Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers about technology and the law: It is difficult to determine how laws written years ago will be applied to technology developed only months ago. Already cloud storage is leading to different interpretations of search and seizure than would be considered reasonable by most of us. And don't get me started on texting and calling while driving. The whole thing riles me up.