Tag Archives: FBI

Admissibility, Criminal Liability, e-Evidence Insights, eDiscovery 101, eMail, Metadata, Privacy, Sanctions, Security, Technology

eDiscovery 101: Petraeus was Done In by Gmail Metadata – Someone Else’s!

MP900448670I’m sure you all know by now that I don’t venture into scandals, per se, on this blog; except when they involve our area of examination: Technology, privacy, evidence and eDiscovery.

That said, I’ve certainly been following the messy Patreaus developments, becoming more and more interested in the Gmail connection to all of it.  None of the initial stories answered my question; if a woman was allegedly being harassed by Paula Broadwell, why did they need to monitor her (Broadwell’s) Gmail account, since the victim would be the recipient of all of the emails, and have them in her possession?  It suggested to me – and probably to some of you – that the harassing emails were probably being sent anonymously and had to be traced back to the source to specifically identify who was behind them (Broadwell).

This morning, we received confirmation.  Naturally, the situation is going from bad to worse faster than you can say, “October surprise”, but for our purposes, the interesting link is the metadata (specifically rich location-data) gleaned from the victim’s inbox, which provided the trail back to Broadwell by linking her physical whereabouts to the devices that were the sources of the emails; which ultimately led back to Petraeus through clandestine emails in Broadwell’s – not his – inbox.

Got all that?  Good.  And what are the things that bother me (I refuse to utter the oft-annoying “raises questions”)?

  • What in the world is the Director of the CIA doing with a Gmail account?
  • If any of these messages were sent via mobile technology, why didn’t the sender disable GPS monitoring (recall my recent post about location-privacy)?
  • Apparently some of the correspondences between Broadwell and Petraeus were pretty racy.  Did they really think it would remain private?

Considering both Petraeus and Broadwell apparently set up anonymous Gmail accounts specifically to facilitate carrying on their affair, it once again calls into question the very knowledge, training – and self-awareness – of those who we charge to protect this country and its secrets.

Simply put, if even Petraeus doesn’t get it, who the he** does???

Admissibility, Constitution, Criminal Liability, Implementation, Scope

The Star(t) Chamber


 

Take note; the FBI has given itself expanded powers to potentially examine information such as databases or your household trash; based on flimsy – or non-existent – evidence.  This is more of a "be aware" notice as some jurisdictions have been doing this already.

But it reminded me of the movie, The Star Chamber, because there was a scene in which evidence was tossed due to agents searching a suspect's trash and the court later finding that this required a warrant; because at the time of the search, the trash was deemed not to be in the public domain.  Based on several higher-court decisions, it's unlikely one would obtain that ruling today.

So here's my question.  What're they going to do when they're searching someone's computer trash folder?  Will it depend on the location of the machine?  Are discarded electronic files the same as discarded physical trash?  Will I be making this argument in a future court hearing, someday?

At first glance, this may seem specious, but I know many people who never empty their trash folder.

Criminal Liability, e-Evidence Insights, Education, Security, Technology, vDiscovery Insights

v-Discovery Insights: Everything ‘Pops’ with Pringles – Just ask the FBI…

Pop: (verb – transitive): slang.  To Arrest, e.g. "Johnny got popped selling heroin."

Courtesy of MSNBC.com, this video illustrates beautifully (if you can call it that in this context) how easily one may hack into your router – and the amount of trouble you may get into as a result.  This is what cyber-crime really looks like.  Do you want to bank on a competent law-enforcement technician believing your explanation, then doing the legwork necessary to establish that you're not a child-pornographer?

Remember when I said I was going to start posting videos on this blog?  Yeah, me either…it was that long ago that I said it, but obviously haven't done it.  Well, I'm going to do it, but in the meantime, I've been sitting on "v-Discovery Insights", which I was diligently saving for the occasion.  I've decided it would be good to use with all of my posted videos – whether they're mine or not – so that you can select them as a category.  So, there you go.  From now on, all videos posted here will have that tag.

Now comes the hard part – deciding whether I want to go back through 325 posts and tag the prior ones!