COMPUTER EXPERTS: Please explain how Foley IM's can be authenticated/vetted

SELF | Oct. 3, 2006 | SELF

[soozla]

Can the computer expert Freepers explain how one can verify/authenticate the IM's attributed to Foley? Can it be done reliably and/or on the other side, is it possible for someone well-versed in computer technology to issue "phony" IM's, so it would appear as if Foley had sent them?

[soozla]

I am wondering if this could be a scandal along the lines of the Dan Rather/phony memo-type and the ding-dong Dimo-craps are so orgasmic over the possibilities that their brains have shut down..........they have literally flushed the toilet handle on themselves.

[Fawn]

Wouldn't doubt it. They already have 2 examples where the emails were photoshopped.

[Always Right]

Nobody is denying they aren't accurate? Foley is guilty. Foley resigned. The story is over unless there was a crime.

[VOA]

Just speaking for myself...
I hope the FBI does all the full-tilt documenting and authenticating needed
for the case of Foley's folly.

BUT,
Foley resigning as soon as the news of the IM dialogues was breaking
is all the authentication I need.
He knew he was toast as soon as they hit the Internet.

And you haven't heard one peep from Foley or his camp about them being
inauthentic.

But then Foley is busy getting help with alcoholism.
Not with the real problem in his soul.

[PeterFinn]

Foley acknowledges the IM's are real. Yes, ginned up IM's will soon float around the Net (and I expect to see some on FR that will inevitably have me laughing) but I'm sure the people involved can tell the real thing from the hoaxes.

[Heavyrunner]

It depends, really, on how network security is configured in the Fed.

If they use Bluecoat, which I suspect they do, it tracks all web sessions, regardless of type and associates them with login names. For example, my company can pull up the IM, email, and web surfing habits of mine via this appliance.

Look, the fact that Foley is going down quietly and not angrily fighting this, and the Republicans' damage-control mode behavior about this is all I needed to know.

I can't think of someone who would take this lying down if they were innocent.

[muawiyah]

If the emails are accurate, then whoever held onto them for the last 3 years engaged in the commission of a crime.

We need not go into the details of that ~ there are plenty ~ but any halfway decent prosecutor can find all the charges he needs against anyone he choses in this case.

[HarleyLady27]

Just wondering myself:

Maybe they were photoshopped??? Maybe he resigned because NOT everyone knew he was gay???

I DO NOT contend that if he did what he is accused of is ok, IT ISN'T; but if he has been framed then the people that are doing that are just as WRONG as if he did this terrible thing, if he did....

[soozla]

I'm talking about the IM's which are far worse than what the emails contained. No one has denied the emails were sent. The FBI is supposedly "vetting" all of it...........I's like to know if/how the IM's can be attributed to Foley.........that's a little different than authenticating emails

[NonValueAdded]

Pull them off the server logs or backups at AOL. Otherwise there is no chain of custody. It is too easy to fake a log: set the system clock back in time, edit the file, alter the file's timestamp. A forensic analysis of the hard drive of the computer storing these messages could find traces of the alteration but it would be proof that they were forged and not necessarily proof they were authentic.

ABC should be asking the source "did you receive them directly?" and "why didn't you tell anybody until now?" Also, don't discount the idea that a group of hetero teenaged boys might find it great fun to goof with a "fag." Chances are they bragged about it and that might just come out in an investigation.

[kevkrom]

They can't be. Unless the server conncting the two "chatters", if any (some programs just set up peer-to-peer connections rather than acting as the go-between for all traffic), was keeping logs itself.

[Incorrigible]

I'm waiting for the Dateline "To catch a predator" guy to come out and explain how Foley was actually chatting with DNC operatives.

[soozla]

Thanks, NVA.........you just answered what me and many other people have been ruminating about. Not that Mark Foley should be let off the hook....BUT.....if you read the content of the email, it's not all that "suggestive" unless, of course, one ASSUMES that Foley is gay, and reads the EMAIL tinted with that observation. I mean would the same attention be focused on Nancy Pelosi asking a female, underage page the same questions in an email?? HHMMMMMM????

BUT, when the IM's are thrown into the mix, it gets pretty rank and raunchy, and IF Foley is the author of them and that can be authenticated, then off with his head.

BUT..........if Foley is being set-up, this is a whole'nother story, baby!!!!! And my message to the Republicans is THE GLOVES BETTER BE OFF!!

[GreenAccord]

As for most IM applications, the logs are stored as simply text files or XML documents on a user's own machine.

One could edit the text of any file by simply opening the file and typing away. Even in XML, a novice user could easily see that the text that is stored between the XML tags and add their own edits.

This is all pretty moot as Foley has admitted as much, so there's no point in wondering if the IM's are legit. What's more to the point is how long the media and the Democrats had the information and sat on it waiting for their October surprise.

What's so very obvious is the application of the double standard when comparing these events with the democrat Gerry Studds in the early 80's. It's not often there's a direct, exactly similar circumstance that can be used to display differing sets of standards.

I can say I'm proud all of us are saying he (Foley) should have resigned.

[BritExPatInFla]

Yep, that's why with each release of new I.M. transcripts, Foley has screamed louder and louder about his innocence, and how this was all a dim setup.....Oh, he hasn't proclaimed his innocence due to a setup? That problem's solved.

[BritExPatInFla]

I am wondering if this could be a scandal along the lines of the Dan Rather/phony memo-type and the ding-dong Dimo-craps are so orgasmic over the possibilities that their brains have shut down..........they have literally flushed the toilet handle on themselves.

AOL, Yahoo and the other major IM providers have logs, and don't think that the feds don't know how to get them.

[JamesP81]

Can it be done reliably and/or on the other side,

The only foolproof way I can think of offhand is to use a packet sniffer, which would intercept the messages as they are sent. Also, some instant messengers keep a simple log of messages; this could be looked at.

is it possible for someone well-versed in computer technology to issue "phony" IM's, so it would appear as if Foley had sent them?

Fairly easily done, but somehow I doubt that's what happened here. If the man was innocent, he should've stood his ground rather than resign.

[blogblogginaway]

I'm no 'computer expert' but I am familiar with IM'ing. I have been saying all along it would be impossible imo to authenticate these IM's as they are years old and had to have been copied and pasted somewhere. Therefore it would be extremely easy to alter them.

You and I have never instant messaged (I don't even know you). But I could EASILY make it appear we IM'd just this morning, or I could change the date and make it appear this conversation took place last week ..... or 5 years ago. So here goes ..........

soozla (10/3/2006 11:03:09 AM): can IM's be faked?
blogblogginaway (10/3/2006 11:03:45 AM): yes but why would anyone want to do that
soozla (10/3/2006 11:04:10 AM): oh i don't know, just a thought
blogblogginaway (10/3/2006 11:04:24 AM): hope this helps

[soozla]

WOW!!

[Tallguy]

I wouldn't waste your time looking for a conspiracy. Foley resigned & is doing the re-hab thing. He did it.

A more fruitful area of research would be to look into who held this information until now. Foley's seat is almost certainly lost. It could be happenstance, but I wouldn't bet on it.