Child Porn and Your Computer
Your very first inkling that you have been hijacked is when your computer tech calls to tell you that he has found child pornography images on your computer and he's just reported you to the police. You're screwed.
The police are wary of the AP story for an obvious reason. It makes for a great defense to cover the tracks of genuine pedophile and child pornography gatherers. It is however a reason for real concern for computer users that should be ignored at your peril.
The virus or Trojan horse can get onto your hard-drive through a visit to a website, clicking on a popup link or opening an attachment or link in an email. It can lay dormant on your PC until it senses that you're away from the machine. It will go into action searching for and gathering images, videos, and links; all stored on your hard drive.
You probably (falsely) feel confident that your anti-virus software will do its job and protect you. Sometimes it will. Sometimes though, the virus can slip through. More worrying, the virus, once activated, can turn off your virus protection while it does its business and turn it back on again when done. (There's a link to the AP article at the end of this page).
So how do you protect yourself? Here are eight suggestions that you can do yourself. There are other methods, so ask around. Item one is the most important if you're in an office environment.
1. Make sure your IT department and your corporate management are aware of this article. Ask them to issue written recommendations to staff on how they intend to combat it. Keep a copy of your original notice to them.
2. When you're not using your PC turn it off. Off; not standby. Make sure that the wireless connection is also off. Password-protect the restart process.
3. Do not allow anyone to use your PC unsupervised; ever.
4. Make sure that you have the best virus protection available and that it updates regularly. There are many free applications available - try AVG Free Anti-virus. Do a complete scan once a week.
5. Do not allow remote access to your PC by anyone. Check under your Start Menu/Control Panel open the System icon. Go to 'Remote' and unclick Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop. You can always turn them on if you need to. Check equivalent setting for the PC you use.
6. Delete all spam unread with embedded links.
7. Don't click on popup links, quizzes or notices that your PC has a security issue. If you can't get rid of a popup close the Browser and restart your session. Holding down Control/Shift/Esc together brings up the Task Manager and will allow you to force close a window that is causing a problem.
8. Empty your browser Cache, Cookies and Temporary Internet files regularly.
You don't need to be over-bright to know why this is important. Having child porn found on your computer is a potentially career or life-ending event. This is one time when we all need to be proactive in protecting ourselves and in taking personal responsibility for doing so.
You've been forewarned, hopefully forearmed.
Link to Associated Press article:PC virus can frame innocent of child porn
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/10/pc-virus-can-frame-innocent-of-child-porn/
or http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573085,00.html
Published by ButlerReport
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2 Comments
Post a CommentThis happened to me and ruined my life. I barely survived prison, they tortured me and tried to kill me. The police know I'm innocent, but that just makes them look even worse for doing that to me, so they keep persecuting me to keep me from talking.
The Russian Business Network is an organized crime group that has done this to hundreds of thousands of people, and no one can talk about it. Only one person I know of in the USA, a government employee, has been exonerated because his computer was hacked. I suspect many - maybe most - of the people accused of child porn are actually innocent. They're forced to plead guilty. For me, I could choose between facing life in prison before a jury, or pleading guilty and only getting a few weeks, months, or years. Proving your innocence is REALLY HARD, especially when the evidence is illegal, and can't be examined.
Once convicted, you go on a registry so the government can frame you easily, and if you say you're innocent, you're considered
Wow, I never knew this was possible. Great Article and good info to know1