Pre-teen daughters found among child porn on work computer

[Neighbor]

I can't believe that someone can store child porn on their work computer undeliberately.

It can actually happen, although no one wants to believe it, despite the evidence.  Case in point:

Child Porn Possession Charge Dropped Against Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents Investigator
BOSTON CRIMINAL LAWYER BLOG
Featuring TAMI LOEHRS
June 18, 2008

The Suffolk District Attorney's Office has dropped the child porn possession charge that was filed against Michael Fiola, a former Department of Industrial Accidents investigator in Massachusetts. Fiola was fired from his job after child pornography was discovered on his state-issued laptop. The computer was a replacement laptop, issued in November 2006, after the one he had been using was stolen.

Several months later, IT officials at the DIA noticed that his data usage was four times higher than that of his colleagues. He was fired on March 14, 2007. Fiola had spent several years as a DIA employee investigating workers' compensation fraud.

Massachusetts state police convinced the Boston Municipal Court to charge him with possession of child pornography in August 2007. After conducting a lengthy investigation, however, Tami Loehrs, a nationally renowned computer forensic analyst retained by Fiola's defense team, discovered that the former investigator was the victim of spam.

Loehrs's 30-page report discusses how Fiola's laptop had been running corrupt virus protection software and that crackers and spammers had barraged the computer's memory with images of pre-teen porn and incest. The images could not be seen by the naked eye.

Loehrs says she is 100% convinced that viruses and trojans had compromised the laptop, which may have been hacked, and that her findings show no "user interaction preceding the porn activity," some of which had been rapidly downloaded.

Fiola's wife, Robin says her husband has always been computer illiterate, and that he plans to sue the DIA for "destroying our lives." Fiola says that their friends abandoned them and he wants to get his reputation back.

Child pornography possession is considered a serious criminal and social offense in Massachusetts. A criminal charge of child porn possession can lead to the ruin of your reputation, the loss of your job, and the loss of relationships.

Probe shows kiddie porn rap was bogus, Bostonherald.com, June 16, 2008

Victim of malicious software tells how it cost him his job, his friends, his livelihood and his peace of mind, Computerworld.com, June 18, 2008

Fiola and his wife have been essentially bankrupted; they cannot sue the State for negligence -- due to low statutory penalties, no lawyer will accept the case.

Neighbor

[trempaton]

I think this guy deserved it. Not only is not safe surfing without being behind thousand of proxies, but storing these kind of pics, not in his computer, but in his work computer... This is insane, normal people doesn't hide cp in a computer which can be examined by another people.

[Neighbor]

I think this guy deserved it. Not only is not safe surfing without being behind thousand of proxies, but storing these kind of pics, not in his computer, but in his work computer... This is insane, normal people doesn't hide cp in a computer which can be examined by another people.

Did you read the story? I don't think so.  This man was given a work-supplied laptop to use as part of his duties as an industrial accidents investigator. The laptop was supplied to him by the department's IT section, and it was supplied with out of date, or malfunctioning anti-virus software. This man is not a computer geek -- he barely was able to use the computer for the tasks assigned to him. Some malware on the laptop downloaded the illicit images -- this was discovered when the bandwidth his 4G modem was using up was something like 4x that of the other investigators. As soon as they found the images, they did like you did, and assumed he was guilty.

Neighbor

[trempaton]

Neighbor, I was talking about the guy in the first post, not in yours. My mistake not to mention it in my previous message. I apologize

[Neighbor]

Neighbor, I was talking about the guy in the first post, not in yours. My mistake not to mention it in my previous message. I apologize

No problem.

Neighbor

[MrHollywood]

Well, using a work-related PC for your stash is inviting Darwin for another "finest hour". You just don't do it, you just don't do it!!!