Passwords access for police

By CHRIS BARTON

All New Zealander computer users may soon be legally required to help police execute search warrants on computers if recommendations fast-tracked for the forthcoming Terrorism Bill are adopted.

The proposals, drawn up by the Law Commission at the request of the Ministry of Justice, include the obligation to help police by handing over passwords and encryption codes or "keys" used to scramble data.

Deputy Secretary for Criminal Justice Warren Young said the commission was asked to fast-track advice on searches of computer systems, as well as advice on the use of electronic tracking devices, so that the Government could consider including the subjects in the bill.

It is due to become law before the end of June.

The recommendations follow a decision by the Cabinet policy committee on December 12 to legislate to "impose a 'duty to assist' on all telecommunications service providers to provide reasonable assistance to police, GCSB [Government Communications Security Bureau] and SIS [Security Intelligence Service] in executing an interception warrant, within their technical capacity and on a cost recovery basis."

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Paul Swain confirmed that legislation requiring telcos and internet providers to carry out interception warrants had been drafted and would be ready in about a month.

The regulations are likely to amend the Telecommunications (Residual Powers) Act 1987 which already requires network operators to assist with interception warrants.

The commission recommends that businesses or individuals should be entitled to recover costs associated with helping police, but proposes that they should have to apply to the district court.

The commission argues that the legal costs involved would guard against "trifling" claims.

The recommendation would reverse present practice where telecommunication companies such as Vodafone and Telecom routinely charge the police for phone records searches.

Law commissioner Donald Dugdale said the thinking behind the obligation to assist police with computer searches reflected whether it was a civic duty.

"The good citizen will help the police," he said.

On the issue of handing over "the key to electronic data that a constable is entitled to search", the commission proposes the same definition of "key" found in the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. That refers to "any key, code, password, algorithm or other data" which allows access to electronic data or puts it into an intelligible form.

The commission has stopped short of the more draconian powers of the British act, which force an individual to surrender encryption keys (essentially pin numbers which allow users to decipher encoded data), or face jail for up to two years.

For New Zealand law, the commission recommends excluding suspects from having to hand over keys, but requiring anyone else with knowledge of a computer system to do so or risk being in contempt of court.

The commission's paper, entitled Electronic Technology and Police Investigations, also recommends that search-warrant powers be widened to include the use of electronic tracking devices on vehicles or packages, but not on people.