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		</div><p>British security services have lost their legal fight to force an alleged cyber hacker to hand over the passwords to his encrypted computers in a landmark case.</p>
<p>Lauri Love, 31, is fighting attempts to extradite him to America to face criminal charges for breaking into Federal Reserve computers.</p>
<p>He is accused of stealing &#8220;massive quantities&#8221; of sensitive data resulting in millions of dollars of losses and Mr Love&#8217;s lawyers say he faces up to 99 years in prison in the US if he is found guilty.</p>
<p>Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) launched an investigation and raided his family home in Stradishall, Suffolk, England, in October 2013 when they seized encrypted computers and hard drives.</p>
<p>No charges were brought in Britain against Love, but the NCA wants him to hand over his passwords so officers can check the data before the electronics are returned.</p>
<p>Love&#8217;s team says the application, if granted, would be a significant blow to privacy and amounts to a &#8220;power grab&#8221; by the security services.</p>
<p>Delivering her judgment at London&#8217;s Westminster Magistrates&#8217; Court, District Judge Nina Tempia said: &#8220;I&#8217;m not granting the application because to obtain the information sought the correct procedure to use, as the NCA did two-and-a-half years ago, is RIPA and the inherent safeguards incorporated thereafter.&#8221;</p>
<p>She said the courts should not use their case management powers to &#8220;circumnavigate&#8221; existing laws and the safeguards they carry.</p>
<p>Love, the son of a reverend from Suffolk, is suing the NCA for the return of six bits of encrypted hardware being held which he says contain his entire digital life.</p>
<p>But the NCA is fighting the case and applied to the court to force Mr Love to hand over his passwords before it returns the computers.</p>
<p>The NCA argued that screenshots taken of the computers before the encryption kicked in show that Love had information from Nasa, the US military and the Department of Energy.</p>
<p>But the judge agreed with Love&#8217;s lawyers who argued that the NCA should apply to a court under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to force people to hand over their passwords to decrypt data.</p>
<p>Speaking outside court following the ruling, Love said he is &#8220;happy&#8221; with the result and accused the NCA of trying to undermine protections safeguarding individuals&#8217; property.</p>
<p>He said: &#8220;It is a victory, although it is a more an avoidance of disaster.</p>
<p>&#8220;It retains the status quo which means there has to be safeguards before you force people to undermine their security.&#8221;</p>
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