The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) produced a briefing document in October 2006 on data encryption. It provides an outline of the various encryption techniques, how they may be applied and some discussion of government initiatives under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to help criminal investigations deal with encrypted data. The document has been published as POSTnote 270 and is available on the Parliament website at: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn270.pdf.