Posted on 06/18/2008 10:26:41 AM PDT by Abigail Adams
A child porn possession charge lodged against a Department of Industrial Accidents investigator fired for having smut on his state-issued laptop has been dismissed because experts concluded he was unwittingly spammed.
“The overall forensics of the laptop suggest that it had been compromised by a virus,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley.
Nationally recognized computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs told the Herald Michael Fiola’s ordeal was “one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen.”
Loehrs, who spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense, explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was running corrupted virus-protection software, and Fiola was hit by spammers and crackers bombarding its memory with images of incest and pre-teen porn not visible to the naked eye.
Two forensic examinations conducted by the state Attorney General’s Office for the prosecution concurred with that conclusion, Wark said.
Still, Fiola, 53, whose wife, Robin, described as “computer-illiterate,” wants his day in court. He intends to sue the DIA for “destroying our lives.”
“Our lives have been hell,” said Fiola, a former state park ranger now living in Rhode Island. “I hope to recover my reputation, but our friends all ran.”
DIA spokeswoman Linnea Walsh confirmed Fiola “was terminated,” but declined to say if any internal discipline has been meted out as a result of his name being cleared in court.
“We stand by our decision,” she said.
Fiola’s attorney Timothy Bradl is at a loss to understand why.
“Imagine this scenario: Your employer gives you a ticking time bomb full of child porn, and then you get fired, and then you get prosecuted as some kind of freak,” he railed.
“Anybody who has a work laptop, this could happen to,” he said. “Mike Fiola is a hunt-and-peck kind of computer guy. He can barely get on the Internet.” . . .
This is bologna. 99% of viruses don’t put porn on your computer. They go in with the intention of stealing information OR destroying your machine.
21st century Kafka ping!
This news account should be circulated widely among your “email forward” friends. This is terrifying—
Still, it would be relatively easy to build a click fraud virus that could do this.
Then mayhap the Dept. of Industrial Accidents should (among other things) investigate who the laptop had been previously issued to?
Or maybe they already did and (Boston being Boston) they decided to hang this guy to cover for the real (well-connected) culprit?
You can have the laptop locked down like Ft. Knox, but all you have to do is give it to a user with little to now computer skills. Some how, some way, they or their kid will get something on it.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=5188541
” . . .and authorities took a second look at Fiola’s case only after he hired a forensic investigator to look at his laptop. What she found was scary, given the gravity of the charges against him: The Microsoft SMS (Systems Management Server) software used to keep his laptop up to date was not functional. Neither was its antivirus protection. And the laptop was crawling with malicious programs that were most likely responsible for the files on his PC.”
If it wasn’t visible, how did anyone know it was there?
Three separate forensic examinations suggest otherwise.
Maybe this explains it?
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9098598
“Loehrs thinks the same thing happened to an Arizona resident named Matt Bandy, who was 16 when police raided his house in late 2004 and charged him with possession of child pornography — charges that could have resulted in a 90-year jail sentence.
Bandy eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges. But Loehrs — who also was hired as a consultant by Bandy’s attorney — said that like Fiola, the teenager may have been the victim of a worm that turned his PC into a ‘zombie computer’ that was used by others to store the child pornography.”
The Yokel family is not pleased with the use of this racist slur!
I hate zombies, whether the computer kind or otherwise.
Sorry, you are incorrect.
There are botnets with zombies in the 5 to 6 digit range that do nothing but hold mirrors of porn sites for their owners. This guy just happened to get caught.
Not necessarily. Storing the stuff so that others can get it is also a problem.
Hack his computer, set up a hidden storage file and cram it full of kiddie porn so others can share it there without a computer illiterate person even knowing.
My MIL was complaining that her computer wasn’t working, she didn’t even have antivirus running, much less tracking and spyware, all the grandkids used the system when there also.
Adaware found sell over 2000 items it deleted, took running it several times and eventually I just reformatted and did a clean install. Never got it all out even with Spybot and running Microsoft’s malicious software, whatever she had on there was a nasty little critter.
How many friends do you have that are accused of using Child Porn?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.