From Slashdot:
"The Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents fired worker Michael Fiola and initiated procedutes to prosecute him for child p*rnography when they determined that internet temporary files on his laptop computer contained child p*rn. According to Fiola, "My boss called me into his office at 9 a.m. The director of the Department of Industrial Accidents, my immediate supervisor, and the personnel director were there. They handed me a letter and said, "You are being fired for a violation of the computer usage policy. You have p*rnography on your computer. You're fired. Clean out your desk. Let's go." Fiola said, "They wouldn't talk to me. They said, "We've been advised by our attorney not to talk to you."
However, prosecutors dropped the case when a state investigation of his computer determined there was insufficient evidence to prove he had downloaded the files. Computer forensic analyst Tami 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 p*rn not visible to the naked eye. The virus protection and software update functions on the laptop had been disabled, and apparently the laptop was "crippled" by malware. According to Loehrs, "When they gave him this laptop, it had belonged to another user, and they changed the user name for him, but forgot to change the SMS user name, so SMS was trying to connect to a user that no longer existed... It was set up to do all of its security updates via the server, and none of that was happening because he was out in the field." A malware script on the machine surfed foreign sites at a rate of up to 40 per minute whenever the machine was within range of a wireless site."
The problem is, as soon as the issue becomes about child p*rnography, all sense goes out the window. They massively overreacted with insufficient forensic checks on the laptop - surely a quick scan through event viewer would have picked up the malware dialling out? Seems Michael Foila wants his day in court though - Boston Herald Report
I've done a few reports on users dowloading p*rn/illegal software/unauthorised use of work manchines - there's no way we'd go to legal measures without solid forensic proof.
*edit* mods - just realised this might get blocked for some people. Please prune the title as you see fit.
"The Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents fired worker Michael Fiola and initiated procedutes to prosecute him for child p*rnography when they determined that internet temporary files on his laptop computer contained child p*rn. According to Fiola, "My boss called me into his office at 9 a.m. The director of the Department of Industrial Accidents, my immediate supervisor, and the personnel director were there. They handed me a letter and said, "You are being fired for a violation of the computer usage policy. You have p*rnography on your computer. You're fired. Clean out your desk. Let's go." Fiola said, "They wouldn't talk to me. They said, "We've been advised by our attorney not to talk to you."
However, prosecutors dropped the case when a state investigation of his computer determined there was insufficient evidence to prove he had downloaded the files. Computer forensic analyst Tami 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 p*rn not visible to the naked eye. The virus protection and software update functions on the laptop had been disabled, and apparently the laptop was "crippled" by malware. According to Loehrs, "When they gave him this laptop, it had belonged to another user, and they changed the user name for him, but forgot to change the SMS user name, so SMS was trying to connect to a user that no longer existed... It was set up to do all of its security updates via the server, and none of that was happening because he was out in the field." A malware script on the machine surfed foreign sites at a rate of up to 40 per minute whenever the machine was within range of a wireless site."
The problem is, as soon as the issue becomes about child p*rnography, all sense goes out the window. They massively overreacted with insufficient forensic checks on the laptop - surely a quick scan through event viewer would have picked up the malware dialling out? Seems Michael Foila wants his day in court though - Boston Herald Report
I've done a few reports on users dowloading p*rn/illegal software/unauthorised use of work manchines - there's no way we'd go to legal measures without solid forensic proof.
*edit* mods - just realised this might get blocked for some people. Please prune the title as you see fit.
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