Man sues MS after FBI uncovers smut surfing habits
Respect my privacy, sobs bomb-making suspect
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
A US man awaiting trial on firearms offences is suing Microsoft after FBI technicians found self-made sex videos and evidence that he frequented porn sites on his PC.
Michael Alan Crooker, currently on remand in a Connecticut jail on charges of selling illegally modified firearms and possessing bomb-making equipment, is inflamed that security settings on his PC failed to prevent Federal agents from finding out about his smut-surfing habits. He's suing Microsoft in Massachusetts Superior Court for privacy violations that he claims caused him "great embarrassment" in a lawsuit that seeks $200,000 in damages in compensatory and punitive damages.
Crooker bought his Compaq Presario PC, which came preloaded with Windows XP and several security utilities, at a Massachusetts branch of US retailer Circuit City in 2002. Circuit City assured Crooker that the security technology bundled with the PC would protect his privacy.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents seized the PC when they raided his home in June 2004 over allegations stemming from the alleged sale of an air rifle equipped with a silencer.
Unable to examine the PC itself, BATF agents sent it to the FBI's Cryptologic and Electronic Analysis unit, where technicians were able to take an image of the PC for forensic analysis despite protection supposedly afforded by Compaq's DriveLock security software. This analysis found video files of Crooker and his girlfriend making out along with evidence that he frequented pornographic Web sites, medical records and correspondence between Crooker and his attorneys. They also found Internet history files that showed Crooker's fondness for pornographic Web sites.
Crooker said he set Internet Explorer to delete his internet history file every five days and is upset computer forensics investigators were able to obtain data on his porn-surfing habits. "Any day beyond those parameters is supposed to be permanently deleted and is not supposed to be recoverable," Crooker said in the lawsuit, Information Week reports. He's also aggrieved that Compaq's DriveLock security software was capable of being circumvented by the FBI.
The plaintiff, filing from behind bars, cuts an unsympathetic figure and his charge against Microsoft is clearly preposterous since Microsoft makes no claims that internet history tracks are erased by Internet Explorer. Simple deletion does not put files beyond forensic recovery, as any tech-savvy Reg reader will know.
There again we're talking about the US, where everybody is entitled to their day in court and perhaps Crooker may yet win out in his legal bid. In the court papers, Crooker said he's reached settlements with Hewlett-Packard, which owns Compaq, and Circuit City. ®
COMMENTS
LOSER
Hope the LOSER doesn't win. I'm tired of criminals abusing the legal system to make crime pay. It won't be long before child molesters sue their young victims in court, claiming that young children cause these perverts to commit their crimes. Now days, it seems that criminals have more rights than the law abiding citizen or their victims. When someone commits a crime, they should lose their right to sue anyone !!!!!
BATFE
It's the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and has been that way for almost 6 years.
re. Drivelock must have a backdoor
Three possibilities come to mind:
1) The FBI searched his home. Perhaps they found his keys written down somewhere.
2) It's not clear from http://www.drivelock.com/features.aspx whether it encrypts the main drive or not. It could be read to imply only removable drives can be encrypted. In which case, even if his private data is on a removable disk, all sorts of stuff may still be in the swapfile on the main drive, in addition to things stored in the clear in the profile (on the main drive).
3) Even if drivelock can encrypt the main drive, perhaps he hadn't done so. In which case it was only the login authentication details the FBI didn't have (causing them to put the drive in another machine to read it).
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Cloud based data management
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
