Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FBI Dad's Misadventures With Spyware Exposed School Principal's Child Porn

Posted by Soulskill on from the lesson-learned-always-spy-on-your-kids dept.

nonprofiteer writes "This is a crazy story. An FBI agent put spyware on his kid's school-issued laptop in order to monitor his Internet use. Before returning the laptop to the school, he tried to wipe the program (SpectorSoft's eBlaster) by having FBI agents scrub the computer and by taking it to a computer repair shop to be re-imaged. It somehow survived and began sending him reports a week later about child porn searches. He winds up busting the school principal for child porn despite never getting a warrant, subpoena, etc. The case was a gift-wrapped present, thanks to spyware. A judge says the principal has no 4th Amendment protection because 1. FBI dad originally installed spyware as a private citizen not an officer and 2. he had no reasonable expectation of privacy on a computer he didn't own/obtained by fraud."

6 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around... by TWX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...the spyware surviving a cleaning by a computer repair shop and the FBI...

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:I'm still trying to wrap my brain around... by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Keep in mind this wasn't exactly the computer specialist division of the FBI, considering he had to take it to a computer repair shop to get them to fix it. TFA says he asked his colleagues, without knowing anything more I'd assume they don't work in the "cybercrime" division. So more like it survive cleaning by some random individuals and a probably-incompetent computer repair shop (Geek Squad or similar, they probably thinking knowing how to use regedit makes them computer "experts".) The FBI as an organization was completely uninvolved.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    2. Re:I'm still trying to wrap my brain around... by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It was left on deliberately in an attempt to spy on random U.S. citizens and collect data.

      More delicious loopholes to exploit left and right!

      --
      Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
    3. Re:I'm still trying to wrap my brain around... by deathlyslow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just because he works for the FBI doesn't mean he is computer literate. The majority of them are nothing more than federally paid beat cops doing missing persons investigations and helping out when other LE can't do the investigation themselves. I think you and others are giving him too much credit because he works for a three letter government agency.

      --
      Don't blame me for redundant posts. I can't type very fast. Hence the user ID.
    4. Re:I'm still trying to wrap my brain around... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Re-imaging is a kind of factory reset, in this case, to what the school's IT department says is a standard load for these kinds of school computers. Which may also be no special load, just reset Windows to a fresh install.

      Generally, though, only Windoew+ whatever the school had would be installed. Executables generally would not be preserved -- that's the point of a reimage. And data preservation probably isn't done unless specially requested, which doesn't include installed executables anyway.

      In spite of all this and the nasty subject, I'm still not comfortable giving the spying government official the benefit of the doubt rather than the spied-upon citizen. It is hardly shocking to anyone to suggest he may be lying out his ass.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    5. Re:I'm still trying to wrap my brain around... by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I find it far more chilling if the FBI knew exactly what is was doing: lying to the judge about having deleted the spying software to set a precedent for doing this wholesale, using a case where the judge would likely be extremely biased in their favor.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.