IBTS and the Missing Laptop - Part III

I e-mailed the IBTS regarding this decrypt-recrypt thing, here's what I got;


from "Corrigan, Arthur"
to Damian Gordon
cc "Bowler, Patrick"
date 3 Mar 2008 08:20
subject Missing laptop
mailed-by ibts.ie

Dear Damian

Thank you for your recent email in relation to the stolen laptop in New York. The reason the information on the laptop was re-encrypted because the IBTS had provided the New York Blood Centre the data on an 256 bit encrypted CD and in order to load this information on to laptop they had to decrypt it and then re-encrypt it again as it was being loaded on to the laptop.
I hope this answers your query.

Regards,

Arthur Corrigan


IT Manager
Irish Blood Transfusion Service


This really didn't make a lot of sense to me, so I sent this;


from Damian Gordon
to "Corrigan, Arthur"
date 3 Mar 2008 16:18
subject Re: Missing laptop
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi,

I'm not trying to be difficult about this but I really don't understand what you mean, in your original email you said "The reason the information on the laptop was re-encrypted because the IBTS had provided the New York Blood Centre the data on an 256 bit encrypted CD and in order to load this information on to laptop they had to decrypt it and then re-encrypt it again as it was being loaded on to the laptop."

I don't get this, why couldn't they upload encrypted data onto the laptop from the CD, that shouldn't be an issue. You can copy encrypted data from a CD to a laptop without having to do this.

My main problem is this, if the CD was decrypted and re-encrypted "on the fly" or whatever, the reality is that as it was being decryped the results of that information had to be stored somewhere, to allow that data to be again re-encrypted, and chances are that it was on the virtual memory of the laptop. So even if there was never a file created on the laptop with the decrypted data, the decryption process had to happen somewhere, and if it was on the virtual memory of the laptop, then it could be possible to restore that data.

I would be very grateful if you could check for me exactly why the data had to be de-crypted and re-encrypted, and is it possible that it occured in the virtual memory of the laptop,

many thanks,

Damian


Looking forward to their response.