The Warrant Requirement
The empire strikes back. How much time is left to detain someone under forced arrest? There are many types of forced detention, and in Korea, the maximum is forty-eight hours. Within that window, investigators must extract decisive evidence to elevate a suspect to the status of an accused. That is why, outside of special circumstances like protests, forced detention usually occurs only after decisive evidence or actions have surfaced that can turn a suspect into the accused. The United States is not much different. I do not know how the FBI identified and captured the suspect in the LA homeless serial killings, but they must have had a critical lead. Yet that lead apparently lacked sufficient evidentiary value. So while digging through everything, they stumbled upon the computer and decided to crack the password as a last resort.
“Vice President Remington. Have you heard anything about the homeless murders?”
Yoo Jae-won first confirmed the basic facts.
“Yes, I read about it in the papers. Homeless deaths are so commonplace here that they rarely make the news, but when the same method kept appearing month after month, articles started running.”
The incident itself appeared to be real. Although Yoo Jae-won tended to treat the FBI with the same suspicion he reserved for the KGB, it was possible the Bureau had inflated the case or intended to misuse the technology they were requesting. After all, during the era of its first director, J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI had functioned as a political police force. Much time had passed since his death, yet organizational culture did not change so easily. It was entirely possible they might use the tool not on a murder suspect’s diary but on the private journal of a prominent politician. If the serial killings were genuine, however, the likelihood of such misuse decreased. That meant the FBI truly could not crack Keyboard Warrior’s encryption and was genuinely struggling.
“Hmm. Keyboard Warrior’s encryption system is not particularly complex. It is surprising the FBI could not break it.”
Keyboard Warrior’s diary encryption was based on a symmetric-key algorithm. It was not new technology. Yoo Jae-won had taken the DES system IBM developed in 1975, made minor adjustments, and applied it. The computational power required for encryption was modest, and decryption was fast—fast enough to run on a 286 without significant delay.
“Of course we know how to break DES,” Agent Skinner interjected, having been listening to the conversation between Yoo Jae-won and Remington. “The problem is that damned Aegis Shield copy-protection system.”
Aegis Shield. The anti-piracy mechanism that detected any tampering with the original and refused to run the program at all. More than ten titles, including Keyboard Warrior, currently used it, and the companies that licensed it were satisfied with its performance. While none had sold as explosively as Keyboard Warrior, they reported sales increases ranging from twenty percent to double their original projections. Royalties flowed to Yoo Jae-won accordingly, though they did not constitute a major portion of ID Technology’s revenue. In any case, the diary file could only be opened by launching Keyboard Warrior itself. If the wrong password was entered five times, the program terminated automatically and locked further attempts. Even if someone tried to brute-force DES through random inputs, the program would shut down after five failures. Attempting to modify the executable to remove the attempt limit triggered Aegis Shield, which rejected the altered file outright. The result was ironclad security. It was only natural that the FBI concluded it would be easier to approach the company that created Keyboard Warrior than to break both Aegis Shield and DES themselves.
“Hmm.”
Yoo Jae-won considered the matter briefly. The suspect had not yet been convicted. Therefore, his privacy was still protected. At the same time, he was not entirely innocent, and if released he would have a high probability of fleeing. He might lie low for a while after escaping, but once the tension eased he could return to hunting victims along the streets. If another murder occurred, Yoo Jae-won would not be able to avoid a guilty conscience. When he had drawn up his master plan in his previous life, he had naturally considered situations like this and decided on a response: follow the law of the country in question. Doing one’s utmost to protect a user’s privacy was the right thing to do. Protecting someone beyond the law, however, fell outside the scope of corporate activity. In the future, if ID Technology’s search service entered China and allowed searches for keywords such as Tiananmen or democratization movements in the name of users’ right to know, it would violate Chinese law. Critics might accuse the company of yielding to an anti-democratic regime. Yet that criticism came easily because the critics were third parties. The majority of Chinese citizens did not resent their government’s policies. On the contrary, some radical users behaved like Red Guards and directed their anger at the service operator rather than the authorities. The character of a nation’s laws and government was determined by its people. Advancing ahead of the public’s consciousness without their consent earned no sympathy. The internet business grew stronger with more users. The correct path was neither to lead nor to lag, but to align with the common sense held by the majority. If users wished to protect their rights, they should first demand it from their government, not from the service provider. Once laws protecting users’ privacy and rights were enacted, ID Technology would devote itself to upholding them. Even lawful requests would be disclosed transparently—after a delay of several years, not in real time. That principle had not changed. Although it was pathetic that the FBI could not even crack such a simple DES implementation, Yoo Jae-won had no intention of leveraging technological superiority to stonewall them. Moreover, this single case did not involve the full analytical resources of the FBI. Only a portion of the agents stationed in Los Angeles were handling it. If the Bureau brought in other agencies, supercomputers, and genuine computer experts, they would eventually pierce Aegis Shield and break the DES encryption. A small investigative team working alone, however, would require considerable time and effort.
“Understood. I will cooperate.”
Both agents’ faces brightened at Yoo Jae-won’s words. A trace of warmth finally appeared on their previously cold expressions.
“However, I will proceed immediately once you provide a search warrant.”
Agreeing to every request that arrived would lead to ruin. How could one know whether a request came from an individual or served another purpose? Therefore, he would only act upon documents officially issued by a government agency.
“What? A warrant?”
“Every minute counts! We have no idea what he will do if he is released!”
The two agents immediately protested.
“Violating a user’s privacy without authorization is illegal. A warrant is what makes such an action legal. No matter how much I wish to cooperate, I cannot break the law.”
If they did not want to obtain a warrant, they could simply return and crack it themselves. Continued refusal, however, would make future cooperation far more difficult, which would ultimately burden the authorities. Cracking something as old as Keyboard Warrior would take at most two days, but the encryption used in ID Office was far more sophisticated and robust. After all, ID Office employed AES technology five years ahead of its time. In his previous life, AES had remained unbroken until quantum computers became commercially available. Requests similar to this one, involving password-protected ID Office documents, would undoubtedly arrive in the future. Establishing proper procedure from the very first request was important for both ID Technology and the FBI.
“Surely the illustrious FBI is not attempting to coerce my employer into committing an illegal act?”
Remington, who had been listening anxiously, finally spoke up. Regardless of how serious the case was, bypassing the password without a warrant while the suspect remained unconvicted was illegal. Furthermore, Remington disliked the FBI agents’ high-handed attitude.
“A search warrant? Do you think those things are handed out so easily?”
Obtaining a warrant was apparently complicated even in the United States.
“How much time remains before you must release him? Was this not urgent? It seems you have time to waste arguing.”
Yoo Jae-won’s calm question darkened the agents’ expressions further. Before either could utter something harsh, he spoke first.
“Ah, and I am not saying I will only begin once the warrant arrives. I am a reasonably flexible person. I will start the decryption process right now. The results, however, will only be shown after the warrant arrives.”
The two agents, who had been glaring at Yoo Jae-won, relaxed somewhat. They stepped into a corner of the office to confer in low voices, then returned with stiff expressions, apparently having reached a conclusion.
“Very well. We will obtain one. In the meantime, Agent Anna here will observe to ensure you perform the work properly.”
Agent Skinner finished speaking and immediately moved to leave.
“You are not planning to travel all the way back to Los Angeles, are you? A phone call or fax would suffice.”
Yoo Jae-won’s remark made Skinner pause. Apparently he had genuinely intended to cover the hundreds of kilometers to Los Angeles in person.
“It is my responsibility.”
Whether out of pride or reluctance to appear accommodating, Skinner refused to turn back and simply walked out.
“Please.”
Once Skinner had left the office, Agent Anna Morales let out a long sigh and showed a gentler demeanor than she had displayed while the two men were present. She reached into an inner pocket and produced a thin plastic case the size of her palm, handing it to Yoo Jae-won. Her gaze, previously directed at Remington, now focused solely on him. Through the conversation with Skinner, she had clearly identified where the authority lay. Inside the plastic case was a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
“Vice President Remington, please go to the restaurant and ask our distinguished guests for their understanding.”
“Yes, I will return shortly. They will understand.”
Yoo Jae-won had not forgotten the attendees of today’s event. He asked Remington to explain the situation to them. He then sat down at the office computer—a 486 machine he had specially configured, complete with a premium, for flagship store inventory management and report writing. Even in the United States, 486 computers were not yet common. Yoo Jae-won had paid extra to ensure the demonstration machine delivered impressive performance. Only ID Office was installed on it, so he could not begin work immediately. Fortunately, the machine was already connected online to the Silicon Valley office, allowing him to access the company FTP server and download the Keyboard Warrior source code and compiler.
“What program is this?”
Agent Anna, watching Yoo Jae-won operate the computer, could not contain her curiosity. The colorful Ribbon Interface was something she had never seen before.
“It is Android Alpha, a DOS-compatible operating system distributed free of charge in adware form. Naturally, it was developed by ID Technology.”
An FTP client supporting the Ribbon Interface had also been created by ID Technology programmers. It was not yet at a commercial level—merely capable of converting the DOS screen to graphics and supporting higher-resolution fonts. Thanks to the Ethernet connection to the nearby office server, the download finished in an instant.
“I will first remove the password attempt limit.”
Using the Notepad included with Android Alpha, Yoo Jae-won opened the main source file and began editing immediately. Because he had written the program himself, he quickly located the relevant function and started modifying it. His work speed was remarkably fast. Within minutes he saved the changes and began compiling. Normally one would use an integrated development environment such as Turbo C for debugging, but given the time constraint he proceeded directly to compilation. Since he was only disabling a single activated feature rather than rewriting the entire program, extensive debugging was unnecessary.
“Hmm. This should take about ten minutes.”
Agent Anna nodded at Yoo Jae-won’s explanation. The task was not complicated, and she herself was reasonably proficient with computers, so no further explanation was required. A silence settled over the room.