The National Crime Agency has lost a legal battle to force an alleged cyber hacker to hand over the passwords to his encrypted computers.
In a landmark case, 31-year-old Lauri Love is fighting attempts to extradite him to America to face criminal charges for breaking into Federal Reserve computers.
He is accused of stealing "massive quantities" of sensitive data resulting in millions of dollars of losses.
Mr Love's lawyers say he faces up to 99 years in prison in the US if found guilty.
Officers from the UK's top crime fighting force launched an investigation and raided his family home in Suffolk in October 2013 when they seized encrypted computers and hard drives.
No charges were brought in Britain against Mr Love, but the National Crime Agency (NCA) wants him to hand over his passwords so officers can check the data before the electronics are returned.
Mr Love is suing the NCA for the return of encrypted hardware which he says contains his entire digital life.
The NCA argued that screenshots taken of the computers before the encryption kicked in show that Mr Love had information from NASA, the US military and the Department of Energy.
But the judge said 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.
Mr Love said he was "happy" with the result and accused the NCA of trying to undermine protections safeguarding individuals' property.
He said: "It is a victory, although it is a more an avoidance of disaster.
"If the judge had required that I am forced to pass over information just to get the chance to ask for my property back, it would mean that the police and the executive have the power to take things away without a hearing."
He insists he will never hand over his passwords, saying "there will be no decryption".
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