Quote Originally Posted by abostonboy View Post
If he got arrested, how did the computer become password protected?
It was probably on or in standby mode when authorities found it. Then they turned it off.

Cracking encryption is a matter of computing power. Depending on the key size, it could take millions of years for a single desktop computer to open it with brute force.

But I would be inclined to think he used a simple passphrase, so a dictionary attack should have been able to open it. I wonder how hard they really tried?