Curious - Is this Forum Evidence?

[joe817]

I'm going to start typing with my keyboard upside down to talk in cryptic talk, so I won't be detected. Shhhhh....it's a secret.

[Shorts]

I recall hearing somewhere that accessibility was a factor. For example, bookmarking and automatic logins make for fair game.

But don't ask me to go any further or elaborate. I could have been dreaming this whole thing

[stealthcrf]

on another forum I frequent, a car forum, a user allegedly killed his wife some years ago. The site owners were subpoenaed (sp?) and forced to turn over the server logs. The user had posted about how he hated his wife and joked about how he would get rid of her. The site owner had to appear in court and the posts were entered as evidence. Not sure of the outcome.

As to deleting posts, they get "cached" by search engines. Many times a search engine will give you a bad link, but you can click "cached page" and still get the original copy with less functionality. Once its out there, its out there.

[chartreuse]

and I am also the Tooth Fairy. :-)

Well, I was also two sharks and a monkey!

[Piney]

I can see how one's postings on the Net could be found and possibly traced for use in the preparation of some form of criminal or civil case should the need arise. I've found postings attributed to me made back in the BITNET days that are still around. Isn't technology wonderfull ?

I frequently cringe at the detailed postings made by some. These postings include very precise information regarding a specific situation. Some of these have even included comments implying the poster thought they may incorrect in their actions and were seeking others' opinions. The TRNAL (they really need a lawyer) rule should apply. Fortunatly, when one of these postings is made, several folks' comments are-- "you really should consider removing this post".

Should I ever find myself in a "delicate" situation, I would certianly not be posting anything about it on the Net !

and... before anyone asks... I only wear my tin foil hat on every third Tuesday.....

[Alison Wonderland]

I was reading this and just thought I would throw in my IT opinion regarding info on your computer's harddrive.

First off, when you delete something from your drive, your system just hides it from your view and marks it as "able to be written over". It's still there until you computer needs to write something new to disk, and needs the space that the old information lies in.

A normal format will not remove all of the information from your disk either. The info can still be recovered with the right equipment. This equipment is kind of cool in that instead of reading with a drive head looking straight down onto your drive platter, it has 2 heads that read from either side of where the bit was written (bit being the 1 or 0). This allows it to read what was written there before the bit changed. This is why there are DOD format utilities. Google "DOD wipe" and you will see what I'm talking about. There are several DOD standards for removing data. This normally writes all ones or all zeroes on your harddrive about 7 times over (7 passes). It's a long process, but I've had to do it for companies that I work for when disposing of harddrives that have proprietary information.

If you just format your drive, and then punch a whole through it, "they" can take the platters out of your drive, and recover the data around the hole.

And this is just a drive. Once the info is out on the internet... I'm not even going there.

[mctowalot]

Fire: God's "delete all"

Edited to add: just talking about hard drives - it's just a joke. Seriously.

[RiverCity.45]

I'm in a business that deals primarily with people who are divorcing. I can confirm that, when people get divorced, they can and will use your Internet posts and activities against you. I see it all the time. If someone wanted to get custody, one might use this sort of information to try to portray someone as a "gun nut." Whether or not it will work would depend on a lot of factors, but don't delude yourselves into thinking you are anonymous. I recommend that we all post based on the assumption that people who want to destroy us are reading each press of the "enter" button.

[Dragonfighter]

Excuse me while I go and delete every post I've ever made.

That probably wouldn't help. Just because you've "deleted" it doesn't mean it's really gone (although someone with experience in forum software would have to confirm that), especially if another member quoted your post, because YOU can't edit his/her post.

For those who are old enough to remember the Iran-Contra hearings, one of the factors that gave Ollie North so much trouble was the fact that "deleted" emails were only deleted from his system, but were archived on the email server. I'd imagine the situation with the forum would be similar.

It can be made more difficult for forensics if the "owner" of the site were to access their ISP server I.E. Cpanel and delete the tables and then the databases themselves, then remove the architecture of the forum...

BUT anything that is written to and then deleted from a hard drive leaves file fragments, kind of like abbreviated indexes, that have enough information that can be re-constructed to the point where information (though not totally intact) can be accessed. This would take a great deal of effort and expertise so they would have to really want to get something on you. There have even been cases where a HD involved in a fire had data retrieved from it.

The only way to completely remove data to the point where the most advanced forensic data experts would be likely unable to retrieve anything is to write the disk to zeroes and then demagnetize it, making it unusable again. Most ISPs are cloud hosting now and have bits and pieces of your site's data written all over and in redundancy, at multiple physical machine locations. Even if you have an ISP where it's in a single location, they are RAID systems and there is redundancy that ALL disks would have to be destroyed beyond recovery. Even single site ISPs typically have an off site mirror.

You can make it extremely difficult, unlikely you could make it impossible to gather evidence.

A note about IPs, there are nefarious means by which a ne'er-do-well can utilize forwarding routines to make something look as if it came from another (possibly yours and mine) IP. So, IMO it would have to have a coherent link to your machine for an IP address to be relevant in evidence...does not mean they won't kick in your door though.

Added in Edit: These cautions should apply to blogs, Facebook, MySpace et al. Employers are by routine Googling the names of perspective employees. Anything you have authored with your first, last or (perish the thought) your whole name can destroy your hopes of gainful employment.

[chabouk]

Every time I open this particular thread, it makes me think of this other one:

http://texaschlforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=30267" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[C-dub]

Well, evidence of a crime is different. However, if they can't prosecute the lawyers that said water-boarding was okay, then how could I be held liable for giving someone my opinion.

On the clearing data forefront, what about degaussing? Wouldn't rubbing a decent sized magnet around a drive pretty much do it in?

[CDH]

A search of YOUR computer will show links in your browsing history to this forum and probably be able to reveal your handle. From there it is only a warrant away from having everything you ever write here available to a prosecutor.

IANAL, but pretty much everything you write, say, own, touch, etc. can be acquired via warrant if a prosecutor can show just cause.

[57Coastie]

A search of YOUR computer will show links in your browsing history to this forum and probably be able to reveal your handle. From there it is only a warrant away from having everything you ever write here available to a prosecutor.

IANAL, but pretty much everything you write, say, own, touch, etc. can be acquired via warrant if a prosecutor can show just cause.

You are so right, CDH, but since the enactment of the Patriot Act a prosecutor, even just an LEO, often need not show anything. Even worse, some might say, is that if our good friend Chas. were compelled to reveal who you are, the Patriot Act might arguably prevent him from telling you about it. I have "arguablys" and "mights" here because the law is not 100% clear and consistent, but the point is good.

Jim

[.45mac.40]

Most... NOT ALL....here, Type with our toes, have poor grammar, poor word structure, drift in and out ....
We are tha' only ones who can read and understand (( probaly feel )) what we are trying to convey ?? !!
IF.. I ever have to explain or discuss my self, texts or anything on this board ..... I probaly would babble on and on, just like I'm doing now ??!!
Mac

[Dragonfighter]

We could start typing in binary and then if pressed, we could say this is a zero tolerance forum.