Security Against Compelled Disclosure

Various existing and pending legislation can be used to force individuals and organisations to disclose confidential information. Courts may order a wide variety of data to be turned over by either party in civil and criminal cases. Government agencies are explicitly tasked with protecting “national economic security.” And organised crime will target information just like any other valuable asset. In a less than perfectly ethical world, companies require means to protect their information assets against economic espionage, misuse of discovery processes and criminal coercion. We describe actual and potential examples of compelled disclosure abuses in the US and UK, and legal enhancements to conventional security services for protecting communications and stored data against their recurrence.