Computer malware has been disclosed that secretly downloads child pornography onto the victim's computer. According to AP reporter Jordan Robertson, lives have been ruined by this scam:
Michael Fiola, a former Massachusetts government worker, was arrested two years ago after child abuse images were discovered on his state-issued laptop computer after officials became suspicious of huge data use bills associated with the machine and began an investigation. He was eventually cleared nearly 11 months later after defense experts were able to show that the laptop harboured malware programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute, far faster than a human surfer would be able to accomplish.
Forensics experts hired by the prosecution agreed with these findings and the case, which had nearly ruined Fiola's life, was dropped.
Fiola was fired from his job before enduring death threats and losing friends. His wife stood by him, however, and the couple were able to raise a $250,000 legal defense fund after selling their car, cashing in their savings and re-mortgaging their home. "It ruined my life, my wife's life and my family's life," Fiola told AP.
A cap on the amount of damages they might receive has effectively prevented the Fiolas from suing the state.
There is not a lot of detail about how this happened or how it can be prevented, but with a nearly constant need to patch PCs and MACs for newly discovered vulnerabilities (See Massive OS X Update Fixes Dozens of Vulnerabilities and Windows exploit code coming for just this week's latest) how can anyone feel comfortable that their PC has not been contaminated? Or won't be in the future?
I suspect he either downloaded something by opening a fake email that led him to a malware site or he somehow visited a spoofed web site that downloaded the porn gathering program onto his PC. In either case DNSSEC, by authenticating the site, could have alerted him that something was amiss. Until DNSSEC is deployed we can all be nervous about this type of exploit.
I currently have a son in Federal Prison waiting for trail on this. He had no idea child porn was on his computer until state law enforcement came to his door and asked to look at his computer. Finding the porn was a shock to him. In order to pay for a new Fereal Building in Stuart, Florida the Feds took the case. I've put out $15,000 so far in legal fees and all his lawyer wants to do is plead him out. The lawyer says that the Federal prosecutors have a 90% success rate and he doesn't want to make matters worse. Nobody is asking to do a forensic search of the computer at all. He knows he's innocent, and doesn't want to be labled a pedophile. He would never be allowed around his 1 year old niece and his sister in law that is an elementary school teacher would have to avoid him to save her job. This will ruin his life because of a virus or trojan horse. We are pulling are hair out and I really think this is killing my son.
Posted by: Bonnie Washington | 07/12/2010 at 08:58 PM