Dilemma: Kiddie Porn Found on Computer

February 9, 2008 | self

[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.

[a real Sheila]

Yep.
When it comes down to what is important, ultimately I’d be thinking of what I needed to do to protect myself and my own family against being convicted of a crime I didn’t commit. Contacting the police just MIGHT work against the BIL. I’d do what you said and then perhaps later, offer an anonymous tip to the police about the neighbor.

[CarrotAndStick]

That would be a good idea, but time is being wasted. Child pornography is especially serious, and will attract massive media attention. Lives can get permanently ruined.

People are usually caught after months of tracking... so if the said person’s computer has already been tagged, the authorities are probably just gathering enough evidence till the tipping point has reached, where all attempts to justify are futile.

In fact, the first major blunder: Putting his/her story online here, on a public forum.

Computers that are connected to the internet are very, very, very easily tracked, and permanent footprints are placed all over the internet, with every single byte of data transfer.

[usconservative]

At first my BIL and SIL thought the photos were on their computer, but they weren’t. They were on the neighbor’s computer but they were “shared”.

From your initial post, I couldn't tell if the folders were on your BIL/SIL's machine or the neighbors. Now that it's clear they're on the neighbors, they should be reported to the police for illegally tapping into your BIL/SIL's internet access, and informed that they're aware child porn is being downloaded illegally, and without their permission, through their wireless internet connection.

Having said all that, the next step should be to secure the wireless internet connection so that others aren't able to tap into their wireless connection again.

Some suggested enabling WEP. WEP is easily hackable, and should only be used as a last resort. WPA Pre-Shared Key is the most secure. If your BIL/SIL don't know how to secure their wireless intenet, they should find a reputable pc service company to do it for them. (Note: that does NOT mean "geek squad" or "firedog.")

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

How about talking with legal counsel before doing anything?

I wholeheartedly concur. Freepers aren't qualified to give legal advice, and this looks like it has potential to get people in trouble who weren't out looking for trouble.

It appears that anything your inlaws do could backfire. Lawyer up.

How do they know that the local prosecutor isn't a Nifong?

[adopt4Christ]

child porn was OBVIOUSLY found on his computer — without him knowing anything about it...

[adopt4Christ]

child porn was found on his computer — without him knowing anything about it. It was mixed into what he downloaded — that he never saw. It happens to real people all the time. You can ping me and tell me you’re all cops like you keep doing, and you don’t think the system is this screwed up, all you want to. You don’t know how easily it can happen to completely innocent people. You really don’t.

Even to the poster, who helped a relative get rid of the evidence.

[Malacoda]

ONLY if you brother-in-law is innocent, call the police.

To heck with that. I'd call the police no matter what. SOMEONE is victimizing children, and even if it's the BIL, the obligation is there.

[Poser]

“Ok. I have a problem with this. “Tapping into” a wireless network does not give one the ability to put pornography on someone elses computer on that network. You either have been accessing pornography or you have not been; it is your computer, the wireless is simply access to the internet.”

If any parts of the disk drives on the network are set to share, those stealing your Internet can use them just like you can.

[mdmathis6]

If the network is open and the administrator priveledges allow a non administrator to alter files on a home hard drive...yes it is possible.

They need to get a lawyer quick and call the cops. Computer
forensics experts can track all who are using the hard drive by tracking IP’s to and from the compromised computer so the owners of the network shoulkd have some legal protection! Kiddie porn sting operations may already be tracking this system...so they need to protect themselves quickly!

[ChocChipCookie]

Even to the poster, who helped a relative get rid of the evidence.

Would you kindly stop misrepresenting what happened? I have posted more than once exactly what my husband did and I even emailed that information to you privately. He didn't destroy any evidence. He simply secured their server. Period. That is a far cry from downloading what your friend did, either knowingly or unknowingly.

[wtc911]

How about talking with legal counsel before doing anything?

______________________________________

The only good advice so far.

[visualops]

First off, I’m not cop, secondly, if he illegally downloaded music and porn was somehow “mixed up in it”, he’s not innocent, and he’s also really really dumb.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

This was just discovered yesterday evening. My husband used WPA encryption to secure their network so this doesn’t happen again. He DID NOT delete the files themselves, just disabled any access these neighbors have to my BIL’s network.

But why in the name of God did he do anything to the connection?

The very first thing he should have done was to call the police, so that they could come over and view the files and then get the appropriate warrant to arrest this SOB.

Now you've alerted him to the possibility that he's been outed, so he can destroy his harddrive if necessary.

YOU NEED TO CATCH THIS SOB AND PUT HIM AWAY.

What in Hades is wrong with you people?!?

[adopt4Christ]

he’s really NOT as dumb as you want to believe he is. It happens that way. Look at the original post on this thread. There are a thousand ways CP can get on your computer without your knowledge. It happens every day, and there is no mercy from the authorities as to HOW or WHY it happened. This is real, and it isn’t a joke. Very computer savy people have this happen to them (like my friend did) when they are downloading all kinds of things off the net.

Dismiss it all you want...someday it will touch you personally, hopefully not in happening to YOU, just in someone you will know.

I’ve been talking to some friends who are now out of prison from very similar situations — they are shaking their heads at all of you who are blowing me off — saying, “they have no idea how bad this nightmare gets”.

CP, by the way, are FEDERAL charges, so it’s the Feds who come after you (with all their power and resources), and it is FEDERAL prison (not state) where you do your time. It is not a trip to Disneyland, for sure. And you are forever labeled a sex offender, and compared to guys who raped little children for the fun of it. Going down for child porn gets you a lifetime of reporting on Megans List, and restricts what you can do with where you live, and whether you can live with ANY minor children, including your own biological ones (until you are off parole).

I wish it WERE a joke. It’s not. Until the laws are changed, it is the way it is.

[SeeSalt]

If any parts of the disk drives on the network are set to share..
.
How do I know if there are some parts of the disk drives set to share? How could I checked that? These are questions come from an ignorant guy. Thanks for help.

[Poser]

Click My Computer
Right click on C:
Click on the Sharing and Security choicee
See what you find. If you have no sharing, you should get a message warning you about sharing.

[HawaiianGecko]

"If any parts of the disk drives on the network are set to share, those stealing your Internet can use them just like you can."
By default any shared folders are set to "read only" and in my vast experience in this field most 'regular people' leave default settings alone.  So someone on the outside can read your material in your 'public/shared' folders, but that's all.  I haven't found any programs who's default settings when saving files is one of the public/shared folders.  Nearly everything is saved by nature in Users/Username/whatever and anything at the Users/Username level or below is secure from anyone without your userid/password.

Of course neophytes can go into admin programs and change these folders to 'shared' folders.  They can even allow others write/delete permissions, but an experience person won't, and a neophyte is usually to scared to change default settings, let alone purposefully allow an unknown person the ability to 'delete' their data. For the heck of it I looked in the public folders on a machine of mine that must be close to 8 years old and after all this time, the only thing I found was initially loaded by Windows as example pictures/video/music.  Nothing else.

As I understand this thread ChocChip's BIL does NOT have any unwanted material on his computer. The CP is on the neighbor's PC. The only person known to us to have compromised a network is the BIL.  Come to think of it, the only person we know for a fact to have viewed this porn is the BIL.

The part about the some of the neighbor's folders being mapped on the BIL's machine is simply bullshit.  It can't happen unless someone of the BIL's machine mapped them.  The neighbor may have mapped some of BIL's folders, but the BIL would have NO WAY of knowing that.  That is... there is no possible situation where one will log onto his own machine and magically notice a couple of brand new drives or mapped folders in MY COMPUTER.

To the poster than claimed anything viewed on BIL's computer is stored on his computer... well you're just wrong.  A correct statement would be anything viewed with a browser is stored, but who views the contents of their computer or network using a browser instead of EXPLORER.EXE.  I'm not talking Internet Explorer the browser I'm talking about Explorer the built in navigation system and the heart and soul of Windows. It does NOT make images of files in a temp directory before displaying them.

To the poster that mentioned destroying the router and waiting for the lease to expire before hooking up a new one... You are the closest to a viable solution.  You also need to destroy your cable modem. But good luck destroying the records at your ISP, they know exactly what mac addresses were attached to their equipment and exactly at what time any traffic to/from that address occurred. It's like rearranging your house numbers and then telling the postman that he never delivered any porn to your front door.  You can make the case that one of your kids' friends had a laptop and it was sending/receiving the vast bulk of traffic to and from your house over the years, but good luck selling that one.

As far as the "it's on your computer so you're guilty" people out here... you're nuts. Anyone can send you email with attachments. That doesn't make you guilty of squat.  All it does is offer an opportunity for some Stephen King wannabe to make up an anecdote about Mary Poppins and Mr. Rodgers doing 15 to 20 in Attica.  Fifteen to twenty years ago I'd receive dozens of emails with porn in them. Most people active on the net did, and it's the main reason most people became enraged with spammers and we have been 95% successful at filtering out these spammers. 

To the people who have innocent friends breaking rocks for the next 15 years because they downloaded some music and the feds shot gas grenades and flash-bangs through their Anderson windows.  Let me give you a clue.  Your friends were knowing UP-loading illegal porn and doing it for quite a while. (or selling crack cocain)  What do you expect them to say to you when they get their heads pushed down into the backseat of a black & white?  "Hey I was knowingly, proudly and lustfully distributing porn."

To ChocChip: Your original paragraph said: "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."
Now I have no reason to believe any of this to be false, but that's where I have the problem and so should you.
Never will a user of machine A find folders from machine B mapped to machine A's namespace, unless a user with direct control of the operating system on machine A mapped these external drives/folders to the namespace of machine-A. Someone on machine-A can go poking around on machine-B and find these folders if they happen to be shared, but still the person on machine-A is the one making the effort to find these folders by poking around on some other persons PC.
That may sound like a bunch of bull-o-knee, but keep reading it until you understand it and then do some serious thinking about that.

[tacticalogic]

Your network has been compromised. There is data on you HD that you didn’t put there. You have evidence to suggest that some of the data was put there by a particular individual. Do you have enough evidence to assume that the same person put all of it there? If one person can tap your network, then other people can, too.

[adopt4Christ]

Here’s how things happen in the REAL world.

in 2005 guy went on Peer to Peer sharing site and downloaded anything he could think of. For him, it was more the thrill of the AMOUNT of songs/videos/funny pictures/adult porn/whatever he could download in a given time (he’s a computer geek like that). Anyway, he was downloading those things, and mixed in with the Adult Porn he’d been downloading, there was CP mixed in with it (which he didn’t know about because he wasn’t looking at it while it was downloading). He’d type in a word in the search box and once it found everything that was available, he’d select EVERYTHING (without looking through it) and it would download it all. He kept telling his wife he needed to clean out all the stuff he downloaded “one of these days” but he never got around to it becuase of all they did together with their very young children.

In 2006, he’d taken a flash drive to work that apparently had some of those CP files and the Adult porn files on it as well — which he completely forgot were on there. When he put the flash drive in to the computer, the CP files got on to the system at work. Tech support found it, he was subsequently fired, arrested, and their journey began. He was told that if he pled guilty to one count, he’d get 4 years, but if they took it to trial, he’d probably get more time. So yes, it was all an ACCIDENT that the child porn junk was on their computer.

As a Christian myself, I obviously do not condone downloading adult porn like they did. However, it is not illegal, and it should never get you five years in Federal prison. This happened so fast to this family — weeks from beginning to end — and they are dealing with it as best as they can. This kind of thing happens every single day here in the U.S. Don’t believe me? Look it up for yourself.

[HawaiianGecko]

"Your network has been compromised. There is data on you HD that you didn’t put there."
No, you're misreading her post(s).  I see you responded to #1, but she has made it crystal clear in other posts that it is not her network, it's her brother-in-law's network, and that NO unwanted files are on his machine.  He found the objectionable material on a neighbor's PC.