Could Encrypted Messages on Josh Powell's Computer Lead to Susan Cox Powell?

http://fox13now.com said:
Finally decrypting it could give them access to Internet search history, emails and other things.

This makes it sound like a whole drive encryption. You could encrypt the various data folders for programs, but it would be much more of a pain to do. If it was a Windows machine, BitLocker would have been available on Vista before 2009. TrueCrypt would also have been available, including the ability to encrypt the boot drive, which had just been released 2 months before her disappearance.

"We have broken through one level of the encryption. That's hugely significant," she told FOX 13.
That's a troubling quote. Neuromancer is fiction, and most real-world technology doesn't resemble it. But it could just be a bad description of what they did.
 
That's a troubling quote. Neuromancer is fiction, and most real-world technology doesn't resemble it. But it could just be a bad description of what they did.

TrueCrypt can support multiple layers of encryption, but this quote still makes no sense because ideally ciphertext should appear the same as noise, and that's true of all modern encryption algorithms to the best of my knowledge. There is no way to know if you've broken the "first layer" if it still looks like noise.

Part of me is a bit cynical and wonders if the company that is doing this (which appears to have no sanction from law enforcement) is doing this to give the family some false hope and make a bit of money on the side. They aren't doing this for free.
 
Yes I'm curious to see if he only encrypted some files or if it was the entire drive.
I really cannot see it leading to anything useful though.
What would be helpful are any searches about locations at the time.
Unless he wrote a sort of "book" like OJ's.... and encrypted that?
I think odds are pretty slim to none however.

I tend to agree that the computer won't reveal much.
 
Wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being child *advertiser censored* on there. There's only so many reasons someone would encrypt their hard drive.
 
I just got this email looks weird? Not at all like my other notifications.

Carolina Girl, GrilledCheezy replied to a thread you are watching at Websleuths.

Could Encrypted Messages on Josh Powell's Computer Lead to Susan Cox Powell?
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I just got this email looks weird? Not at all like my other notifications.

Carolina Girl, GrilledCheezy replied to a thread you are watching at Websleuths.

Could Encrypted Messages on Josh Powell's Computer Lead to Susan Cox Powell?
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I believe that email is from the new WS forum that is in beta testing now. Anyone testing the forum are posting in threads, sending conversations, checking out the various functions to make sure everything is working properly before the new forum goes live.

Carolina Girl & GrilledCheezy have most likely posted in this thread on the other forum. I think everything will be erased after testing is done and threads should continue on as normal once everything is in place and the new forum goes live.

I hope that made sense!
 
Well shoot! When I saw this thread show up, i just knew we had had a break in the case.
And, I had just been thinking about Susan and the boys just the other day!

Back to the encrypted messages, I hope they can break the code soon.
Or, someone comes along and just happens to discover her remains.
 
I was just thinking about this case a couple of days ago and last and behold, I came on here this morning and saw this thread!

I was hoping they were able to find her body after all this time!
 
I know this is an old thread but I'm currently listening to the Cold podcast - and I asked someone close to me who has experience in Computer Science about the encrypted devices/files. They said it could be nearly impossible to crack into the devices and files. I have some surface knowledge of this stuff so I'll try to explain for those who want to know why they can't crack the passwords, without too much technical detail.

From what I gathered the company that were trying to crack the password encryption were using databases of previously leaked passwords and also dictionaries as well as another program that is presumably more sophisticated, to try to crack the password/encryption. This may not work, simply because there are programs that exist (although this is speaking with 2019/2020 in mind) that you input your password into, then it will re-assign a new string of characters and numbers to that saved password. E.G. JoshPowell1 becomes s8sytFs66789FDSE or some other gibberish. This type of program is usually used for passwords for websites however. So Josh himself may not have even known what the password ended up as and the program on his locked computer only knows the passwords to certain websites, etc that may be incriminating.
If he didn't go the route of using a password program and just made them up himself, they could also have been gibberish to an outsider and still be a random mixture of letters, numbers and symbols. Judging by the image in this article, the logins to the devices might not be too hard, but once they try to get in to his accounts on websites or locked folders on his computer, it may become more difficult.

The fact that they may not be actual words, but seemingly gibberish strings of letters and numbers makes it more difficult for password cracking programs to crack, since there are more possible combinations, particularly if he used a longer password. For every character of the password there are 26 letters, 10 numbers and numerous other symbols such as ! and ? that could have been used. If we just add up those 26 numbers and 10 letters minus symbols, that means that for each letter there will be 36 (or more) possibilities, then if we factor in that the maximum length for a password can be anything from 8 to 100+ characters... that's a lot of possibilities. Even if you ran that program on a computer for a long time you might not get it, and even then the program could crash or the hardware overheats and you have to start all over again.

The article that features the image of Josh's login is also troubling, because it lays out that one of Josh's computers (he had many, apparently) would only boot from a USB. Susan stated in her diary and in messages to friends that Josh was a "computer geek" so he might have been more sophisticated than we take him for. This could mean that he could have set up a system that would "self-destruct" (e.g. deletes everything) if tampered with, or I think it's more likely that his computers need to be booted from USB like the one in the article, and who knows if those USBs have been locked away, destroyed or were burnt in the fire.

I don't believe that the company trying to decrypt Josh's computer are trying to swindle anyone, but I do think it might be futile, and from what I gather they aren't actively trying to decrypt them either, from the podcast I think the guy said they do it "after hours" and "pull a few computers out" to do it. They're not working on this every day.

We might get lucky. I hope we do get lucky and that they get into them and they find a location or something to point to where Susan is. My heart hurts for her family.
 
I’ve been waiting and hoping to hear they were able to get into his hard drive. With what I’ve come to know about twisted Josh and his even sicker father, they loved documenting all their bizarre behavior. I know very little about encryption but I think there’s a very good chance he entered everything he did on his computer. His father kept a huge, bizarre collection of items, videos and docs about Susan. Josh kept audio diaries too. He would have loved the fact that he had this information and managed to outsmart LE. He probably went into his files to savor his “brilliance” quite often. I wonder if it would be worth reaching out to hackers?
I hope Susan’s family gets some peace and can bring Susan home.
 
I’ve been waiting and hoping to hear they were able to get into his hard drive. With what I’ve come to know about twisted Josh and his even sicker father, they loved documenting all their bizarre behavior. I know very little about encryption but I think there’s a very good chance he entered everything he did on his computer. His father kept a huge, bizarre collection of items, videos and docs about Susan. Josh kept audio diaries too. He would have loved the fact that he had this information and managed to outsmart LE. He probably went into his files to savor his “brilliance” quite often. I wonder if it would be worth reaching out to hackers?
I hope Susan’s family gets some peace and can bring Susan home.

I'm close to a few people who research Crypto (aka hacking) in academia, unfortunately I think due to the nature of things that may be found on Josh's devices (illegal *advertiser censored* possibly, or images of Susan deceased) I don't think they'd like to actually handle copies of his devices, let alone use those copies on their personal or their institutions computers. However I can imagine someone may be interested in making a tool or something that could be used to try to crack the encryption.

Interestingly, there are actually very few true independent hackers. Usually they work for a government, work in academia, for security companies, etc. I believe the company that are working on it at the moment have been successful in the past, notably at getting into one criminal's iPhone (because Apple refused to do it....) which are apparently fairly hard to get into.

I think you're right with the audio journalling part. The guy who made the COLD podcast I believe said that Josh's journal entries stopped up to 2 months before Susan disappeared, so they likely are on his computer, or he deleted them at some point. They found the audio recorder on his desk too. He also used encrypted emails to talk with his brother Michael, who very likely had something to do with Susan's disappearance, even if it was just destroying evidence. They might eventually be able to recover those too, although they might just be incredibly mundane, I think a phone conversation would be more wise to discuss details of a crime tbh.

My heart hurts for Susan and her story has affected me deeply. I've also been in relationships with a narcissist and a sociopath (separate people though, "thankfully") and I still feel afraid of them to this day, despite having zero contact. The sociopath tried to destroy my life and got very close, but thankfully I had the means to run far away and start over. I wish Susan and her boys had had the opportunity to run far away and start over too.
 
@BeepBeep1 I lived with a sociopath too. When I finally got away, I left with just the clothes on my back. Fortunately my kids were grown and out of the house. It sickens me to think of what Susan put up with for the sake of her boys. Had she known how deeply demented Josh was, she would have left in a heartbeat. I feel so badly for her family. They were fighting to do everything possible to protect the boys but sick, selfish Josh couldn’t stand the thought of letting the Cox family have “his” boys.
 
Please remind me, where did the tipoff come from that Susan was put down a mine shaft?
 
Please remind me, where did the tipoff come from that Susan was put down a mine shaft?
From what I gathered in the articles, a couple of this guy’s employees were around this mine during the time period in question and noticed the a-frame that used to sit on top has fallen into the mine. I think they took that information along with some things Josh said over time and thought this mine was a place that matched what they knew. All imo because that’s just my interpretation of what I read.
 
This is one case I would really love to have solved. We know where the children he murdered are, now if we can just find Susan to reunite them, just leave Josh in h e double hockey sticks for all eternity.

 

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