One of my mates works as a call-out engineer for a local data centre. He was restoring a dead HDD when he found literally TBs of pretty violent child porn. At the time he asked me what to do as he wasn't sure, although he probably just wanted to let me know some gossip. In the end he decided to tell the data centre before the Police (fair enough, they need to know anyway and it's in his interest to keep his clients in the loop and happy).
As it transpired after he told the centre owners, the rack space was actually a co-location and was being rented by an individual. However, they pleaded with him not to tell the police and let them handle it, which he obliged to assuming that once steps were taken they would inform them of the crime.
A few months later and he was chatting to one of the on-sites and was told that the incident was never forwarded on because the owners didn't want to potentially instigate a full investigation on the centre. So now there's some guy out there potentially part of or helping to aid child pornography because a company was too chicken to hand in an oversight to the police.
When I was told about it I had some pretty strong opinions, mainly that the company is pathetic for worrying about a situation which probably won't even happen just to assure themselves of not getting audited. But also for my mate who didn't persist about it out of fear of losing a client. I personally would have gone over their heads and told the police, even if it meant losing a contract.
What would you have done?
As it transpired after he told the centre owners, the rack space was actually a co-location and was being rented by an individual. However, they pleaded with him not to tell the police and let them handle it, which he obliged to assuming that once steps were taken they would inform them of the crime.
A few months later and he was chatting to one of the on-sites and was told that the incident was never forwarded on because the owners didn't want to potentially instigate a full investigation on the centre. So now there's some guy out there potentially part of or helping to aid child pornography because a company was too chicken to hand in an oversight to the police.
When I was told about it I had some pretty strong opinions, mainly that the company is pathetic for worrying about a situation which probably won't even happen just to assure themselves of not getting audited. But also for my mate who didn't persist about it out of fear of losing a client. I personally would have gone over their heads and told the police, even if it meant losing a contract.
What would you have done?
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