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Digital Dirt Blawg
Computer Forensics, Privacy & the Law
Tags >> hard drive
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 30 October 2009
Earlier this month, the nation was temporarily captivated by the possibility that 6-year-old Falcon Heene had accidentally launched himself into the atmosphere on a homemade UFO-shaped balloon that traveled more than 50 miles from his Fort Collins, Colorado home. In addition to consuming vast quantities of the airwaves, the incident mobilized various National Guard and law enforcement units, and even shut down Denver International Airport briefly (the balloon ended its 2-hour flight just 12 miles from the airport).
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 23 October 2009
The multi-faceted investigation into whether Boston mayoral aide Michael J. Kineavy in appropriately deleted emails in violation of the Massachusetts public records law is generating a small forest of statements from the principal players, but little additional information.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 08 October 2009
After a couple of days on the road to lecture on privacy in Houston, Texas, I thought it might the Boston City Hall email controversy might have quieted down. Fat chance. In typical Beantown fashion, however, the plot has thickened like unwatched chowder. Here are a few of the highlights: - Yesterday, top Menino aide Michael J. Kineavy, whose fastidious email deletions sparked the controversy, announced that he is taking an unpaid leave of absence. Kineavy told journalists that he has become an unnecessary distraction for the mayor, who is in the middle of a campaign for a record-breaking fifth term.
- In an editorial published the same day, the Boston Globe urged Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to take over the investigation, in large part because her office has subpoena power that Secretary of State William Galvin lacks. Galvin initially launched the investigation when the Meninon administration claimed that it could not supply emails sought by the Globe in a public records request. With a second computer now in play, the Globe said, "[Coakley] needs to gain physical control of the physical hardware in this case before anything goes missing."
- Coakley is a leading Democratic contender in the upcoming U.S. Senate race to replace the recently-deceased Ted Kennedy, and undoubtedly would rather give up playoff tickets at Fenway than get involved in the swamp of Boston City Hall politics. But ignoring a formal request for assistance is not an option, so Coakley announced today that her office is working with Secretary of State Galvin to determine what action, if any, needs to be taken by her office. At the very least, it may give the attorney general a chance to use her new computer forensics lab for a high-profile case.
Not surprisingly, the Globe has used this as a teachable moment on the permanence of electronic data. It seems, however, that many people (including a number of public officials) are still under the impression that the "delete" key means what it says, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 06 October 2009
The simmering saga over missing emails from the employee mail account of Michael J. Kineavy, a close aide to Boston mayor Thomas Menino, was kicked up a notch yesterday by the revelation that an old computer of Kineavy's had been found in City Hall.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 03 October 2009
A massive investigation by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials led to the arrest last week of Najibullah Zazi, 24, on charges that he was preparing to manufacture and use the same type of explosives used in the London subway bombings in 2005.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 02 October 2009
An IT manager at the National Archives and Records Administration alleges that his agency, which is charged with collecting and preserving the U.S. government's most important documents, may have accidentally exposed more than 70 million U.S. military veterans to the risk of identity theft.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 29 September 2009
Proving yet again that "delete" is not a synonym for "destroy," at least in the context of electronic communications, Boston City Hall has released more than 5,000 emails sent by Michael J. Kineavy to other city employees. Kineavy is a top aide to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Meninon, and has been identified as a potentially relevant figure in the federal corruption investigation of former Massachusetts state senator Diane Wilkerson.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 03 September 2009
In an unpublished decision issued yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the "dominion and control" test for determining whether images of child pornography were properly admitted at trial. United States v. Jackson, No. 08-30370 (9th Cir. Sept. 2, 2009).
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 08 November 2008
A British data recovery firm, Disklabs Data Recovery and Computer Forensics Services, reports that nearly 70% of hard drives and flash drives purchased at random on eBay contained pornographic files. Many of the drives also still contained valid work files containing personal information on CVs and in spreadsheets. In addition, most of the previous owners had not taken the steps necessary to wipe out the Internet cache files, which frequently retain highly personal information: user IDs, passwords, birthdates, and credit card numbers, all of which can be used to commit identity theft.
Posted by: Frederick Lane
on 24 October 2008
Five men are on trial for planning a terrorist assault on Fort Dix in New Jersey. Yesterday, government computer forensic experts testified about video and web site materials retrieved from the defendants' hard drives.
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