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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03...ivacy_lawsuit/
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A US man awaiting trial on firearms offences is suing Microsoft after FBI technicians found self-made sex videos and evidence that he frequented porn sites on his PC.
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If he is getting convicted of firearm possession, (in my state 2nd degree felony punishable by 10 years minium)Quote:
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A US man awaiting trial on firearms offences is suing Microsoft after FBI technicians found self-made sex videos and evidence that he frequented porn sites on his PC.------------------------------
why are they searching his PC? Also, why aint local Government involved as in the state police? Why are the FBI involved for a simple firearm possession?
Only good thing out of this he will be serving time in a Federal prison instead of a state prison. Federal prison is not so bad like state prison.
IMO, the guy is pissed because they made him look like a *pervert*.
FBI technicians = Make me laugh. Computernerd22 says, I wouldnt take a dump in the Olive Garden.
Technically, he could sue or have that thrown out of court if they didn't have a warrant to search, nor probable cause.
I'm guessing the reason they were able to look at his PC is because he was most likely selling the firearms over the internet.
As for what he's filed... good grief..
Does he really think that clearing his History really eliminates it permanently.... and does he also believe that the FBI can't bypass anti-cloning and hdd protection? It's a cash grab so that he can pay for his legal defense.
The big surprise to me is that HP settled with him.. I guess it was cheaper then wasting time in court...
I have a question HTRegz, so 'after' you delete cookies, temporary internet files, clear history, data from forms, passwords etc... in IE7 where does it get stored next? In a hidden system file. Reason I'm asking sounds interesting.Quote:
Does he really think that clearing his History really eliminates it permanently
If deleteing all these things still remain in my system, after I deleted them where are they stored exactly? Just the path to a particular file? Or is there 3rd party software that I need to do this? I'm running windows xp sp2 with MCE (MEDIA CENTER EDITION) 2005. All help is greatly appreciated.
Hey Hey,Quote:
Originally Posted by Computernerd22
You have to understand how file systems work... When you delete a file, the data is left in place... what happens is that the link to that file via the file table is broken.. So when the computer needs additional space.. it can overwrite the data..
You might remember the popular DOS undelete command... When you ran undelete it would query you for the first character of the filename in order to restore it... The reason it could restore it is because the data is still on the drive... It just isn't readily available to the operating system...
When forensics comes in, they run data recovery and take all the data from the drive... Sometimes they get complete files (Deleted files that haven't yet been overwritten) and sometimes they get file fragments (deleted files where a portion of that deleted file has been overwritten)... This is why a simple format isn't sufficient when a company is getting rid of PCs and it commonly leads to dataloss... There are standards for "proper" data removal... DBAN is a great free utility for properly removing data ( http://dban.sourceforge.net ).. To meet DoD standards you generally have to wipe and 0-fill (populate the entire drive with 0's or other random garbage) 3 times..
As I read the story it was the BATF who conducted the original raid and seized the computer?
It seems they couldn't do anything with it and enlisted the help of the FBI?
I am surprised that anyone settled, as I would have thought that fact alone would be prima facie evidence that the security system performed to normal user expectations.
I doubt if the guy asked in the shop if it would protect him against an FBI forensic analysis?
Another thing that surprises me is that they actually seem to have told the guy what they found. No need for that IMO unless they were going to charge him over it?
As I understand it, the password protection is part of ATA drive standards, but is generally only activated for laptops. It lives on a chip in the drive itself.
If you don't have a software solution then all you need is an identical drive with the password set to off. Just swap the controller cards and you are in business. Otherwise, short the chip and that will clear the password.;)
EDIT: From a security viewpoint "Eraser" has an option to wipe the free disk space. That will clear stuff that is marked as deleted with a number of overwrite options.
More than that apparently. I've heard rumours that they have equipment sensitive enough to read data underneath 3 wipes of 0s. Something like your particles don't quite go back to 0. Its solid enough for your own drive to read it, but sensitive equipment can tell the difference between a 0 overwritten with 0s and a 1 overwritten with 0s. Basically means, write with random garbage not just straight 0s. Takes longer, but probably worth it if you feel the need to shred your hard drive.Quote:
Originally Posted by HTRegz
Here we go for a simpler option, curriculum machines just get their hard drives formated and smashed. Not much data on there to steal and by the time we are done with them they are worthless to sell.
Well,
The equipment you need is an Electron Tunneling Microscope ;)
The phenomenon you describe is called "magnetic remnance" and you write passes of "0s" and "1"s. Two things are important:
1. You have at least one pass of pseudorandom 0/1s.
2. And that the sequence of passes is also random. If you know the sequence then the original data are much easier to recover.
The other forensic concept is called "track overlay"........... every time you write to the HDD it doesn't do it in exactly the same place. By looking at the partial characters at the edges you can reconstruct the original data.
I honestly don't think that the FBI had to go to any such lengths as the guy obviously had no real idea of how computers work, or security.
Hey, how many people realise what is stored in plain text in the page file?:eek:
That is quite hectic. Doesnt make sense that the FBI went to that extent when the guy doesnt have a clue about security.