Man Gets Virus – Virus Gets Child Porn – Man Almost Gets Jail
Sometimes, all the evidence is just wrong. In a bizarre case, a man was accused of downloading and storing child pornography. Not me, he cried, and $250,000 later he was exonerated.
What happened? His laptop had taken on a virus, and began to visit 40 porn sites a minute, something that even the most horny 13-year-old lad could not accomplish. The porn flowed in, and his boss began to wonder. Why was his machine sucking so much bandwidth?
A cursory poke around the machine found quite an amount of child pornography. Not good for any career, and punishable by up to 5 years in prison. A felony.
The man and his wife, facing endless social pressure, intimidation, even tire slashing, fought and fought the case. They sold things, took a second mortgage, and after eleven months, bucked the case.
It turns out that having a virus is no cause for imprisonment. The family however is crushed, losing all their financial stability, and the job of the husband. They cannot find a lawyer to allow them to sue the state, given caps on possible settlements.
This is the darker side of the internet. Before we devolve into Mac/PC disputes (I do not want to see one “should have bought a Mac” comment), this is a serious issue that affects millions. Microsoft needs to move to make their new, great, and not-quite-popular-enough anti-virus software into something that all PC’s have, pronto.
Some major effort needs to made to deploy it across the PC using world. This sort of thing is avoidable, and cheaply. To make an unfair, poor comparison, we need a new Salk to step forward. Can’t we move past viruses?
Alex Wilhelm is a Chicago-based technology blogger and entrepreneur. He has worked for a number of technology companies in recent years, and has a particular interest in watching the social web monetize. Follow Alex on Twitter, or on Facebook. You can reach Alex via email at alex.w@thenextweb.com
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I think the issue here is the fact that education is key to not getting viruses, malware, adware, spyware etc.
Look at when iWork 09 came out on the torrents and it had malware in it. In all my years (past 6 yrs without a virus) I have always looked at what I was doing on the internet, if I didn’t know why someone sent me a photo or a file in my email I wouldn’t open it! The likes of Firefox, Windows7, Mac OS X etc. with their security it can only go so far, it comes down to user education.
Trust me one day Mac users will bitch and complain that they got a virus, then windows users will just shut them down. Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched kiddies!
Shoulda bought a Mac. :)
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More seriously, if you aren’t running anti-malware software, give it a thought.
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Did you read the post :D
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It still happens way too much: People who just open almost every e-mail even when they know 99% sure it’s malicious. “Just out of curiosity”.
A connected problem is people forwarding chain-mails. Yes even the ones that want to create awareness for hunger, all sorts of cancer, AIDS etc are dangerous and should not be opened.
You can tell these people a thousand times not to send these mails but for some reason they can’t resist.
Tragedies like this don’t just happen to victims of virus infection. I was the victim of someone hacking into my wireless router! The cops didn’t find any of the child porn they were looking for, but instead arrested me on the basis of 4 video files of legitimate adult porn stars that I was able to prove in court. Over-zealous investigators were involved, my name was trashed, I lost my job, my family, and was subject to countless vigilante attacks. Did they publish the fact that I was cleared in court after a very cranky Magistrate put in an official complaint against the police? NO…. I’m still left with a ruined reputation, and unable to do anything about them. At least the arresting cop resigned recently after an investigtion by the Police. It still doesn’t restore my life though! Personally, I reckon when the cops get it wrong, they should go to goal for the sentence the falsely accused person would have got!
Yes I did read the post. In the post the author makes the statement: "I do not want to see one “should have bought a Mac” comment". Hence my "Shoulda bought a Mac" comment. It’s deliberate contrariness, intended as smart-alecky humor, which I would think would be pretty clear to anyone who read the post. As for the suggestion that those who aren’t running anti-malware software should consider doing so, aside from being generally sound advice, that also makes good sense based on the post.
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