Open Sesame | The Gadget Grill

here at the Gadget grill we are strong advocates of data security, and of ensuring that you maintain good passwords to help you to protect your online presence.

This week a story came to light about a teenager in the UK who has been jailed for refusing to divulge his computer password to the police.

19 years old Oliver Drage has apparently been sentenced to 4 months jail for not letting the authorities know his 50 character password. Hindering an investigation by withholding a password is an offense under the U.K.’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, punishable by jail time.

This is a law meant to help thwart terrorist activity, but in this case Drage is being investigated by the police in a child sex exploitation investigation. The investigation has been ongoing for over 17 months, during which time the police have not yet managed to crack Drage’s password.