Chicago pediatrician arrested with child porn, knockout drugs, officials say

KCAL ^ | October 27, 2003 | Mike Robinson, AP

[GovernmentShrinker]

Weird. I wonder if some of it was some kind of residency or fellowship program that had rotations between various hospitals built into it. Or if he had some kind of specialty practice where it made sense (on paper at least) to be moving around like that. Just plain job-hopping between hospitals should have raised some eyebrows earlier.

[AdA$tra]

You're right. Still, how would they know there were 200,000 images?

There are several ways. First of all, if one does not overwrite the data on your hard drive with gibberish (usually just ones and zeroes) at least seven times, then names of files and parts of the data can still be restored. It does not matter if one "fdisks," formats, defrags or anything else because the actual data is still somewhat intact on the drive. A large magnet or campfire can can render a disk unreadable as well, but then it cannot be used again. Secondly, ISP's maintain logs of what is downloaded from newsgroups and theoretically everywhere. They have the MAC address that is attached to the network interface that is on the outside of your home network or PC. It is a unique identifier when correlated with other known user information. In today's technology it would be easy to track EVERYTHING a specific individual did on the web or even financially with credit, debit and ATM cards as well as checks. It is still difficult to do it globally, as in track everyone and everything. As computing power increases it will become more and more possible to track everything everybody does and correlate the data. I do geek stuff full on for a living and feel quite confident that what I know about computer spying is just the tip of the iceberg. My frame of reference is that of known technology, not what is secret and owned by the government. Take nothing for granted when it comes to your privacy. Even if you think you don’t see a camera assume you are being watched.

[wheelgunguru]

Even if you think you don’t see a camera assume you are being watched.

Oh well, I'll sure sleep well tonight. :|

[Dimensio]

Most ID theives won't go through the rigourous methods required to pull data from a drive after it's been overwritten once, since there are less secured data sources elsewhere for them to mine.

[Porterville]

It is a perfect device for those in power, computer networks that is... The MAC number never changes allowing for statistical data to be compiled along with information to various email accounts and banking/credit card/auction accounts.... but what the statistics really show is a pattern of behavior or rather thought... the ability to "read ones mind" and know what an individual thinks even before they know how they will react.

Take Free Republic. Every post since anyone has begun is possibly stored somewhere showing an evolution of belief, thought, and political identity. With the right effort anyone, any power, anything (A.I.) can compile the info and figure out what one is likely to believe within the next ten years according to their mental growth/idiosyncrasy/belief/lifestyle whatever.... We have entered a truly strange new world... one has to wonder if it is safe to have a political identity... for who knows if Howard Dean or Hillary will get into office and have us dragged into the street for being conservative?!?

Ayn Rand would be freaked out. So would Huxley.

Anyway, I can’t imagine how it ends, somewhere between the movie Gattica and the Civil War… or a retraction an slam back into the dark ages politics… with technology of course.

[thegreatbeast]

No where does it say what tumbled authorities onto the good doctor. How did they learn of his secret life?

200,000 images is probably law enforcement ignorance or hyperbole. That many images would have meant that the computer was dedicated to storing images and that's all. Just strikes me as unlikely. But I think this is akin to the police telling the press that two pounds of grass have a street value of $2m!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Today's article Doctor treating kids charged with child porn in the Chicago SunTimes:

(excerpt)

Watzman, 37, of the 1400 block of North Wieland, even apparently took a laptop computer with child porn on it to Edward Hospital, according to a federal affidavit.

In a news conference, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald stressed what Watzman had been charged with -- possessing child pornography -- and what he had not.

"I will also tell parents . . . not to panic, that there's been no allegation that there's been any patients involved in any of these pictures or any other conduct," Fitzgerald said.

Prosecutors urged a judge to keep Watzman, 37, locked up as a danger to children. They said there were more questions in the case than answers, including why Watzman was transferring money overseas and keeping a post office box.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan said she as "definitely considering" bond for Watzman, as long as a relative came to Chicago to live with him. Nolan may decide by Friday.

Watzman's lawyer, Brian Collins, suggested prosecutors had paltry reasons to keep Watzman behind bars and simply wanted him locked up while they tried to gather more evidence to justify their request.

Watzman was a free-lancer who had worked at hospitals in Wichita, Kan.; Peoria; Rockford, and Philadelphia.

Edward Hospital called the charges against Watzman "very disturbing" and said he's an independent part-time contractor, on the medical staff since August. The state agency that licenses doctors said it had found no complaints against him but had launched an investigation.

[yevgenie]

I had no idea. A tech friend of mine, advising me how to get rid of credit card numbers on a hard drive (before dropping the computer off for servicing), said to simply erase, and defrag. Twice. I understood defragging moved existing files into the spaces formerly occupied by deleted files. Was I wrong?

Your friend's advice would not stand up to DoD standards.

[SwinneySwitch]

This IS Protection from Porn Week!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/print/20031025-1.html

[wheelgunguru]

Your friend's advice would not stand up to DoD standards.

So, other than never sending a credit card number over the internet, how do you (truly and completely) erase info off a hard drive? (Short of actually burning the computer, that is.)

[AdA$tra]

Ayn Rand would be freaked out. So would Huxley.

It scares the hell out of me. For now I feel there is some safety in numbers. Soon the impossible numbers will be simple, technology will have God-like power.

[yevgenie]

So, other than never sending a credit card number over the internet, how do you (truly and completely) erase info off a hard drive? (Short of actually burning the computer, that is.)
Sadly, there is no way outside of physically destroying the drive media--at least with the drives most of us use. What is possible, however, is to make sure that only the government would be able to access the data; i.e. make it so difficult to retrieve that only the government would have the resources to pull it off.
What you do:

• Overwrite all the bits of the file with NULL (00)
• Overwrite all the bits of the file with FF
• Repeat procedure several (>5 times) (Some people prefer to also sprinkle a few shakes from a pseudorandomnumber generator.)
• Delete the file.

Why does this not guarantee the data is unrecoverable?
Unfortunately, most of the drives available today have drive heads that don't precisely line up on each write. This doesn't usually cause problems because "close" is "good enough" for standard reading/writing. Some of these drives heads shift just a little between writes. This means that there might be a "ghost" of sorts of the data on your drive in the region near the latest overwrite. These electrical charges are VERY small and it takes a lot of work to recover such information, but it is possible and certain government agencies have the tools to undertake such a formidable task.
If you would like a piece of software to do this kind of multiple re-writing, there are many on the market. If you have trouble finding a reasonably priced one, Freepmail me and I'll try to find the one I wrote a few years ago and released to the internet community for free.
-yev