On August 18th, Mr McBride seemed to give in a bit by showing a few slides of partially encrypted code in a Las Vegas conference room.

ECONOMIST: Face value

The passwords themselves were encrypted, meaning they couldn't be read without breaking the secret code that protected them.

FORBES: The Lawyer Hackers Call

Prosecutors believe that other phone calls may be on Mr. Pellicano's computer hard drive, but code breakers haven't yet figured out how the detective may have encrypted those calls.

NPR: The Math Behind Pellicano's Code