wired: Dead Men Tell No Passwords
According to Wired, Norway's National Center of Language and Culture has appealed for help in accessing a password-protected database created by an archivist who died several years ago. The article doesn't mention encryption, implying the documents probably use a simple obfuscation scheme like the one used by Microsoft Office.
[update: the password appears to have been found, apparently by simple guessing - it was ladepujd, the author's name written backwards]
The problem started when the technician responsible for the archives at Norway's National Center of Language and Culture never divulged the password before he died a few years ago. Since then, employees at the center have been unable to access some of the password-protected archives that contain data on a collection of thousands of documents and books. A national database that allowed researchers access to those documents is also partly inaccessible. So center director Ottar Grepstad sent out an appeal Tuesday on a national radio broadcast, asking for hackers to help crack into the system and discover the programmer's password. (see wired.com)