Although I condemn theft, it warms my heart that at least some are smart enough to implement some kind of encryption scheme for their data.

The ID thieves used stolen credit card numbers and created false identities to buy high-end electronics and other goods, which they then resold on eBay, prosecutors said.

When the gang's premises were raided by the members of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Kostap was handcuffed with his hands in front of his body. He managed to leap up and flick an electrical switch that wiped databases that could have contained records of the gang's activities stretching back more than 10 years, SOCA said.

Kostap's action also triggered intricate layers of encryption on the gang's computer systems, which SOCA's experts were unable to crack, the court heard.

Read more at news.com.com

Now, the thing is, the data must have been encrypted all along, otherwise the scheme wouldn't have worked. The switch flipped might have started a wiping routine, but a tech-savvy policeman would have flipped the power switch to stop that procedure. Which is probably what the thieve did in the first place, flip the power switch. The data will then have to be mounted again to be decrypted, requiring either a private key if utilizing some Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme, or at least, hopefully a strong password.

Now, what cought my attention while reading this story, was really that I have such a dead-man's switch myself. Ok, so it was originally installed in order to control a lamp, but I connected my computer to it and put up a sticker not to use the switch. And yes, of course, my data is all encrypted using a 256 bit cipher.

Now, some people would say that only bad guys requires to encrypt any kind of data, which I would say is complete bullocks. Anyone bringing a laptop with any kind of sensitive information, while not having it encrypted deserves any loss that might happen to them, but their customers doesn't, like when banks looses credit-card information about tens of thousands of customers, or colleges looses information about students.

Read more about securing your data at www.secure-my-internet.com