Posted on 02/09/2008 9:46:43 PM PST by ChocChipCookie
My sister-in-law and brother-in-law discovered that a neighbor has been tapping into their unsecured wireless internet connection. They've discovered 8-10 folders of photos accessible through their network that do not belong to them. (My BIL discovered this a few days ago when he wasn't able to get an internet connection and went searching for his wireless connection.) Some are general family photos of camping trips, their home, etc., but there are numerous photos that can only be described as all-male kiddie porn. Tonight my husband took steps to delete access to the folders that had been mapped to their computer and secure their network.
My SIL and BIL recognized the people in the non-porn photos as neighbors who live across the street, but they have not yet contacted the police. Because my elderly mother-in-law and an elderly aunt (both in their 70's) live with them and are home alone during the day, they are nervous about their safety should these scumbag neighbors discover who turned them in. I don't believe they know these neighbors by name or have even spoken to them.
Can any Freepers suggest the best course of action here? My in-laws had named their wireless network with their last name, so it's very possible that these neighbors know whose network they have been using. Now that access to the photos has been deleted, can the police still pursue this? Needless to say, my first instinct is to call the police myself, but it's not my family in the situation.
He was originally for felony charges and just pled guilty to misdemeanor charges. The guys problem was that he had it for a long time and knew he had it. He also apparently watched it.
The real problem with this situation is you don’t know if this material has been shared with others via this guys IP address and it’s on other peoples computers with the info needed to track it back to this guy. Who knows when those guys will get busted
Yeah, I'd had trouble 12-15 years ago. I had 2 full T1 lines in my house at the time and the original spammers of the world found all of my servers and had setup shop for a couple of weeks before I discovered them. Of course this was at a time when security wasn't given much thought.
I doubt it will ever go this far if what the OP says is true. Just 0ing a drive will do wonders, most people think that a drive format will get rid of the problem. And the FBI aren’t going to spend time on you unless they’ve been tracking you for a good while.
Killdisk and some other programs come with a DoD classified level delete protocol that consecutively wipes the drive ad infinium, for an extra price. If any kiddy porn was ever on your computer, you should wipe it.
SSID is your wireless network’s “name”. The wireless router will broadcast it at intervals so any PC within range can “see” it and try to connect, which is where the security and encryption comes in. I turn it off, which is OK as my PCs know to look for it but if I have a new PC (well, new wireless card) I have to turn it on until the new one is house trained !
Determined hackers can still breach but like deadbolts etc, most will just go in search of easier prey.
Calling the police is risky, in that the first person they will suspect is your BIL or someone else in his house. There could be legal consequences to accusing the neighbor even if he is guilty.
The files should be (or should have been) deleted securely using a program like Eraser, or they will may be recoverable from the hard drive long after they were deleted. If the files have already been deleted, then you can still run Eraser on all the unused disk space after emptying the Recycle Bin.
Your BIL should stop sharing the folders that contained the porn. This may be as easy as right clicking the folder in Windows Explorer (probably one or more folders in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\(Shared) Documents ) and changing "Share this folder" to "Do not share this folder." He should use the most powerful wireless encryption available for his hardware, WPA or better. WEP encryption was hacked many years ago and is not secure.
What would BIL do if he found 5lbs of heroin in his garage?
1) He would toss it and forget about it, or;
2) He would tell the police to come get it.
The same thing here. Except do not by make a ‘secret’ copy of your hard drive and lie about it (as one poster has suggested). Lying to police in an investigation is obstruction of justice.
If he had called cops the immediately he would be better off. Now he will have to answer the nagging question of why he tampered with the HD - but he has a good answer: he was scared.
If the cops are interested they will take a declaration from your BIL so they can get a warrant to search the neighbor’s computer. Once they find the files on the neighbor’s computer they will have no interest in BIL.
Most lawyer’s will have no experience with child porn cases, fewer still have any tech knowledge, so there is no guarantee they will be helpful. The time for lawyers is if someone gets charged. Just don’t make any false confessions in the mean time :)
“See a good defense attorney FIRST. The few hundred bucks you spend is chicken feed compared to what your BIL will face if he’s fingered as the original acquirer of the porn.”
Have to agree with this. See a good criminal law attorney FIRST ... but once that is squared away, you, or the BIL/SIL, really have a moral obligation to report the perps to the police. Anyone who has a LOT of child porn, as the neighbors do, is seriously into it, and may well be molesting children and possibly creating their own child porn at home. Do you want that on your conscience?
(This is assuming the BIL is truly innocent. If he were not innocent, however, he’d have to be a complete idiot to bring you into the whole thing, when he could simply erase the stuff off his own computer and be done with it.)
Good luck. I do think you have a moral responsibility to report this to the authorities. Just make sure your SIL/BIL are legally protected first. (Oh, and your husband too, who has now meddled in things by erasing stuff.)
Thank you!
I ask because live in apt building and surrounded by apt buildings!
I have a PC so I guess I am ok!
You might want to consider that this has been reasonably well documented in Google already. My advice is to NOT destroy anything.I have already sent a private message to poster on this. There are a few of you who are saying some accurate things to her, but not nearly comprehensive enough.
She and her husband, AND her in-laws all need to line up people to take care of their children RIGHT NOW — and both couples need to hire the best criminal defense attorney they can TONIITE without waiting one single second.
LE (law enforcement) will be at their door by tomorrow morning, and they will all be treated like escaped convicts. This is no exaggeration whatsoever. Their children will be handled like victims of kiddie porn until it is all sorted out, if it EVER is. People’s entire lives are destroyed overnite by things like this that happen. The sex offender laws are so screwed up and insane, that people like THIS are treated the same as serial rapists by the criminal system. They could easily spend 10 years in prison, and that is WITH a plea bargain. It goes to trial — their lives are over. The women too — just for being there, and encouraging the deletion of files.
All the advice about how to delete the files is insanity. Those actions will simply add charges to the indictment. There is no mercy shown to situations like this. This post is no joke. These people will spend $100,000 or more to defend themselves. The truth will not matter. All that LE will see is that they desparately tried to delete files — files and folders found on THEIR computer. Their “excuses” about the neighbor tapping into their wireless connection will be laughed at and ignored.
They need to plan for their lives to be on hold (at best) for more than one year starting NOW. The IP will be contacting the police this weekend, trust me.
Don’t believe me? Here’s another thread to read for more. There are thousands of stories like this poster. The laws need to be changed NOW. Some of you reading this will be next — if this happens to you. Don’t believe me? Do you actually want to risk it?
Insanity rules for sex offender laws in every single state. “To Catch a Predator” vigilantism is what rules this country.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1964022/posts
How exactly would that work? On the basis of one FR post the FBI waterboards JimRob until he divulges ChocChipCookie's real name and address? Then they track down ChocChipCookie's BIL and charge him with the heinous crime of erasing someone else's pornography from his computer?
Come on.
Turn the Bastards in ASAP! Before they try to put it back on your family.
I actually told her to get the kids out of the house tonite, have them stay with other family long term, do not talk to one more person about this, and call the best attorney money can buy right NOW. They have all four already violated multiple laws and committed many felonies, because of how stupid and crazy the sex offender laws are, particularly about child porn.
Nothing will matter — except what is found on THEIR in-laws computer, her husband helping to delete the files, and the wives knew about all this and encouraged the destruction of evidence. The children will be put into foster care immediately, and will be given humiliating and terrifying medical checkups to see if they have been victims of child porn themselves. Law enforcement will not check the pictures to exclude the children before removing them. All adults will be treated like mass murderers, with weapons drawn, handcuffed, and put in isolation cells (because of the sex crime charges).
Welcome to the criminal justice system in this country.
There’s some mighty good advice on this board tonight. But I figure, after you download Killdisk, repartition Windows, get two new hard drives, clone your old hard drive, secure your WIFI, erase all digital tracks, enable WEP security, burn the files to a CD-ROM, turn off SSID, use WPA encryption, employ MAC address filtering, secure erase with multiple overwrites, hire a forensic computer specialist and retain an attorney it should run you about 63,000 dollars. It might be easier to just kill your brother in law.
Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part I
(snip)
The security issue with a wireless network stems from the fact that the signal is omnidirectional. Unlike a wired network, where signals are fairly well contained, the wireless signal goes everywhere in all directions (including up and down for those of you in multistory buildings) for 300 feet or more. Anyone who wants to gain access to your signal need only put a receiver (a computer with a wireless card) inside the signal range.Very Important: Why would someone want to access your wireless network? Well, there are lots of reasons. One of your neighbors could "leech" onto your network just to receive free Internet access. Although irritating, this is not all that harmful in itself, if all they are doing is browsing the Internet on your dollar. However, "war drivers" (people who drive around looking for unsecured wireless connections) or professional hackers could use the access to obtain your personal information. For example, eavesdropping while you are conducting an online purchase could expose your credit card information. They could also access the computers on your network.
One of the most unusual illicit uses of unsecured home wireless networks also offers perhaps the strongest reason yet to secure your wireless network. Recently, several instances have surfaced in which people conducting illegal activities used unsecured home networks for the anonymity that they can provide. One fellow parked in a neighborhood, easily gained access to an unprotected home wireless network and downloaded huge amounts of illegal child pornography. He was caught and arrested, but because of a traffic violation, not the downloading. (The police noticed the pictures on the computer after they pulled him over). If someone commits illegal activity in this manner, it can easily be traced to your broadband subscription, and you could end up having to explain to the authorities (and your family) that it was not you or other family members conducting the illegal activity.
Generate A Secure Password (for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption
Now ME, if someone committed a felony on MY property, I think I’d let my conscience guide me.
If children are being abused, you have a responsibility to save/protect those children. Even if it were your BIL, though it surely sounds like it's not or he would not have told you.
I very much doubt that anyone has ever been convicted of possessing or trafficking in kiddie porn solely on the basis of information provided by their Internet service provider. If I am wrong about that, please provide me a link to a legal case that proves it.
Possession means possession. If the files are not on your computer, you do not possess them.
Remember the case in the news?
A guy found a DVD with kiddy porn on it and turned it in.
The police tracked down the girl in the DVD and caught the perp, but still charged the guy who found the DVD and turned it in with a crime.
FINALLY someone comes up with a good reason to vote McCain! To save JimRob from being waterboarded!
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