Jason,
Even an attorney, District Attorney, or the doctor who verifies the evidence
as child pornography, may not view or posses the contraband without the
investigating law enforcement agency being present. They are still bound by
the same "possession of contraband" law.
Therefore, the immediate contacting of an LEA is the only proper real
resolve. Turning it over to the company attorney would be possession and
distribution of contraband a definite no-no.
However, just as if you found a bag of drugs on the ground, you have no
obligation to report it, but picking it up and playing with it is
ill-advised.
Nonetheless, if you simply saw what you thought was child pornography, and
you stopped and wiped the system you would technically be ok, since it takes
a doctors examination to, for the courts, say it truly is/was child
pornography.
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Coombs [mailto:jasonc@science.org]
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 19:14
To: Edmond Chow; security-basics@securityfocus.com; Beauford, Jason
Subject: Re: Computer forensics to uncover illegal internet use
Edmond,
You cannot 'investigate' viewing of child pornographic
material without violating the very same laws that you are
informed may have been violated by the employee of your
company who stands accused.
You must stop your work immediately. Do not begin your work
if you have not already, and get your company to turn the
hard drive and other details over to the corporate attorney.
What you must understand is that certain persons have a legal
obligation to report any finding of evidence of child
pornography, but that your company and its employees, in the
employees' professional capacity, may not have an obligation
to report to law enforcement.
The company is typically allowed to simply wipe the hard
drive of any computer that may have been used to view child
pornography, and take whatever internal disciplinary action
it deems appropriate with respect to the accused employee.
Only your company's attorney can guide you properly, and you
are completely wrong to want to investigate this yourself.
Your company's attorney should advise you that the best thing
to do is wipe the drive, and get on with the business that you are in.
If you report this to law enforcement, the employee WILL go
to prison. Innocent or not.
If the employee goes to prison and is innocent, or is even
accused publicly and is innocent, and eventually finds a way
to prove his innocence, your company will be sued. The
employee will win the lawsuit. Your company may go out of
business over its improper handling of this incident.
Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss this
matter in more detail. This is an area of criminal computer
forensics with which I have much experience.
Sincerely,
Jason Coombs
jasonc@science.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Edmond Chow <echow@videotron.ca>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:27:24
To:security-basics@securityfocus.com, "Beauford, Jason"
<jbeauford@EightInOnePet.com>
Cc:Edmond Chow <echow@videotron.ca>
Subject: RE: Computer forensics to uncover illegal internet use
Good morning Jason,
Thank-you to you and all who responded to me with their
ideas. I am wondering if there are any reference books
available that would guide me through an investigation of
this sort? I am dealing with a case involving the viewing of
child pornographic websites so I want to be careful to follow
reference guidelines of some sort so that I don't end up in
jail myself!
Any help that you can provide in the form of links to
articles and/or books on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Edmond
-----Original Message-----
From: Beauford, Jason [mailto:jbeauford@EightInOnePet.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 8:50 AM
To: Edmond Chow; security-basics@securityfocus.com
Cc: Edmond Chow
Subject: RE: Computer forensics to uncover illegal internet use
Check out INDEXVIEW.exe. Internet explorer writes a history
of all visited sites to a file labeled INDEX.DAT. This file
is usually hidden.
Most end users are not bright enough to research thoroughly
and will not delete this file. If they use Internet Explorer
as their Browser, then find this file and you will have your
proof. Download INDEXVIEW here =>
http://superwebsearch.com/dwl/IndexView.exe
Additionally, SecurityFocus has a great article which
describes what you want to do:
Part 1 (for IE): http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1827
Part 2 (for Firefox) http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1832
Good Luck.
JMB
=| -----Original Message-----
=| From: Edmond Chow [mailto:echow@gettechnologies.com]
=| Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 7:23 PM
=| To: security-basics@securityfocus.com
=| Cc: Edmond Chow
=| Subject: RE: Computer forensics to uncover illegal
=| internet use
=|
=|
=| Dear List,
=|
=| I'm working on the following project and would
=| appreciate your views:
=|
=| I have been tasked with finding out if a certain
=| desktop computer was used to view pornographic sites
=| on the internet. This user has gone to great lengths
=| to try to mask his illegal activities by erasing
=| cookies, temp.
=| files and by installing anti-spyware software on his
=| computer. Are there any tools that would allow me to
=| still uncover proof that he had accessed these sites?
=| So far, the tech department is telling me that he
=| did access illegal sites on only two dates but I
=| suspect that this illegal activity started many
=| months or years ago and it will be up to me to find
=| more proof.
=|
=| Also, at a network level, we know his IP address but
=| yet my technical support department is telling me
=| that they cannot (either because they don't want to
=| or because they are not technically capable of) tell
=| me what internet sites this IP address has accessed
=| in the past. Logically, there must be a point in the
=| network (on some piece of hardware) where I can
=| consult log files to track his activities? Or, is
=| there a log file that I can consult that will tell me
=| what sites all my users have accessed and from what
=| IP address?
=|
=| In terms of access to the desktop in question, I will
=| have full access as the computer will be in my
=| possession in the coming days.
=|
=| Thank-you and any help that you can provide would be
=| most appreciated.
=|
=| Regards,
=|
=|
=| Edmond
=|
=|
=|
=|
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.17/84 - Release
Date: 8/29/2005
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No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.17/84 - Release
Date: 8/29/2005
