Slashdot Mirror
Deleting Files is a Crime?
cemaco writes "A former employee of International Airport Centers, who is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with them, returned his company laptop as required. Hoping to find incriminating evidence, I.A.C. attempted to retrieve deleted information from the laptop in question with no success. This employee had beaten them to the punch. He had used 'secure delete' software, in order to make sure nothing could be recovered. He is now being charged with a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."
It's not an uncommon data-deletion policy to encrypt all archived data/backups, then to later delete the corresponding key to any data that needs to be securely wiped. It would be pretty easy to end up in the same situation as this employee if your data was archived in this way and you decided to delete your keys when you left your job.
> Then he could have been able to argue "You can't have it - returning it to you would be self-incrimination."
That is bullshit. If that were true: a company could argue that the government can't look at their financial records because it would incriminate them; a murderer could deny police access to their premises because they would find a body in her freezer that would incriminate her.
Self incrimination is when you are used directly as a source of evidence such as through a confession, or affidavit, and only applies to a criminal case.
Having RTFA, it looks like Mr. Citrin's problem was that he resigned first, THEN handed back the laptop. The judge ruled that Citrin's right to issue commands of any sort on the system ended upon resignation. If I'm reading that correctly, the solution for other soon-to-be-former employees or contractors seems simple: delete, then quit.
More than anything, use head main ting when separating from a company. 1) get your personal gear out of the office; 2) delete email and files relating to personal business (or that might reflect especially poorly on you); 4) clear your browser history and cache; 5) securely overwrite all free sectors on disk; 6) log out and power down; 7) resign. It looks like Mr. Citrin may have gone overboard and nuked all of the company data on the laptop, which is of value and use to the company and their next person to fill his position, and made it look like he had something to hide.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Believe it. If you are not a publicly traded company, you can refuse the IRS' audit request on 5th Amendment grounds. The IRS has no right to search your records and interrupt your business. A murderer CAN deny police access to their premises and strictly shut the door in their face. A warrant can override this but you cannot be compelled without one.
Similarly, if the police EVER pull you over and ask you if they can search your trunk or vehicle during a routine stop, you can refuse. I have done so, with no recriminations. I didn't have anything to hide but I take exception to the police searching without what I call a valid reason. I was stopped for expired tags, and after a 12-hour shift and 1 hour commute each way I was fully exhausted. Bloodshot eyes and the whole bit. Refused IMMEDIATELY and asked why they asked me. They told me that it was due to the bloodshot eyes and how I was obviously tired. I asked if they wanted me to pull over to sleep, they said no. I asked if they had any further reason for detaining me and again, they had to answer no, so I stated I would leave then. I already had the ticket in my hand - bing bang boom gone.
You don't have to incriminate yourself, and this guy will easily get out of it on appeal.
A better solution would be to ghost the hard drive when you get the laptop at your new job. Returning the computer to them in EXACTLY the same condition that it was given to you (data-wise) would then be trivial. How can they punish you for that? They can't. In fact, you can even prove that it IS in the same condition!