Re: FBI CP sting

[mark seiden-via mac <mis () seiden com>]

i think i can answer this question.

they submit clicking on the link as an attempt to download porn and  
say this in a probable cause
affidavit for search warrant.

they consider this as similar to an attempt (even one which fails) to  
purchase CP using a credit card.
i worked on a case where someone's credit card was attempted to be  
used, unsuccessfully (it was over
credit limit and the wrong address was supplied), the attempt ended up  
in a database,  the processing
company was busted,  and 2.5 years later, law enforcement showed up at  
his door with a search warrant.

an analogue would be an attempt to buy drugs (unsuccessfully).

with the search warrant,  they can look for evidence of actual  
possession of forbidden materials.

if they find nothing, there's no case, supposedly.

yes, given such low levels of evidence, it is easy to frame someone  
for possession of CP.  you could probably
bring down a state governor or a congressman.


On Mar 20, 2008, at 5:05 PM, Bruce Ediger wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Mar 2008, Alex Eckelberry wrote:
>
> > The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting
> > hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex,  
> > and
> > then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.
>
> That's just weird.  Since the "video" files contained nothing illegal,
> they must take "clicking on them" as an indicator that other illegal
> things went on in the house containing the computer with the IP  
> address
> in question.  Does that stand up in court?  If so, why does it stand  
> up?
> Where's the presumption of innocence?
>
> Couldn't someone like the recently apprehended SWATTER "lil Hacker"  
> make
> some people's lives miserable by gaining access to an IP address via  
> an
> open wireless AP and "clicking on a video"?  Couldn't the nearly  
> super-
> powered Red Army CyberWar Battalion hack into, say Michael Hayden's  
> home
> PC, and send  "click" to the "video", getting the FBI to do a little
> Harrasment & Interdiction on someone who has to be the Battalion's
> Greatest Enemy?
>
> Why do they need someone to "click on a video" if Carnivore I mean  
> DCS-3000
> is so frigging good?  Can't the NSA just give the FBI a few hints  
> about who
> to monitor based on the Tap Rooms in AT&T central offices?  Maybe  
> they will
> after Agent Mulder kicks in Hayden's door at 3am some morning.
>
> Also, how do they account for programmatic access?  Googlebot,  
> msnbot "Yahoo!
> Slurp", and a few other apparent bots scan my web server all the  
> time. For
> giggles, I put a "robots.txt" file forbidding access to a couple of  
> enticingly
> named directories ("porn", "payroll", stuff like that) that didn't  
> actually
> exist in the htdocs/ directory.  At least one person or bot has  
> tried to access
> those directories.  I have to conclude that a mis-guided recursive  
> "wget" of
> the wrong IP address might get my door kicked in and all my computers
> confiscated.
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