Man Swallows USB Flash Drive Evidence 199
SlideRuleGuy writes "In a bold and bizarre attempt to destroy evidence seized during a federal raid, a New York City man grabbed a flash drive and swallowed the data storage device while in the custody of Secret Service agents. Records show Florin Necula ingested the Kingston flash drive shortly after his January 21 arrest outside a bank in Queens. A Kingston executive said it was unclear if stomach acid could damage one of their drives. 'As you might imagine, we have no actual experience with someone swallowing a USB.' I imagine that would be rather painful. But did he follow his mother's advice and chew thoroughly, first? Apparently not, as the drive was surgically recovered."
Next time... (Score:5, Funny)
Next time, dude should use a microSD card.
And maybe some mayo. Blegh.
the drive was surgically recovered. (Score:2, Insightful)
Couldn't they just wait for it to move through?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes. But after 4 days (RTFA), there would be legitimate medical reason to worry about whether it was going to make its own way along.
Would you want to retrieve it? (Score:2)
Would you want to be the guy having to retrieve it from the other end?
And this btw is the real life proof of the crypto-nerds fantasy being just that, a fantasy.
Crypto-nerd: Ooh I encrypted this file with a secret password that they can't break with a thousand super-computers.
Secret service: Hit him with this stick until he tells everything. If he doesn't, well that proves he was an highly trained enemy agent.
And WAY to give the game away. Now they know exactly where to look and that there is something
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They have special toilets, attached to sealed booths with attached rubber gloves you put your hands in, and a hose to wash the stuff down...
Immigration officials use equipment like that all the time to retrieve drugs and other illegal items people try to import by swallowing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
*woosh*
Stick? What stick? What article/summary were you reading? If the drive was encrypted, he would not have needed to swallow it in the first place. He probably just panicked and made a failed attempt at being stealthy anyhow.
The big stick. The pointy stick.
The one they will use to beat the living shit out of you for months on end until you willingly and happily give them your encryption key to make the beatings stop.
That stick.
Re: (Score:2)
*double-woosh*
My point is there is no stick mentioned in this story; no stick was needed. You made up said stick. Your original point is moot. If I was nabbed for counterfeiting, I'd love it if agents tried to beat information out of me. I'd get my lawyer to photograph the bruises and the case would be thrown out of court.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:the drive was surgically recovered. (Score:5, Informative)
FTFA:
When Necula was unable to pass the item after about four days, doctors--concerned that the drive was not compatible with the suspect's GI tract--concluded he "would be injured if they allowed the flash drive to remain inside of him," reported Borger. Necula eventually agreed to allow doctors at New York Downtown Hospital to remove the item, according to a source familiar with the incident.
Re:the drive was surgically recovered. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, what a noob. Real geeks have numerous USB ports throughout their intestines and patch their firmware frequently to keep functionality regular.
Re:the drive was surgically recovered. (Score:5, Funny)
After four days, it probably felt more like FireWire...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm surprised they left it in there that long. PCB's have a lot of materials in them that are extremely hazardous to your health. The PCB itself is compressed fiberclass impregnated with thermosetting plastics or other resins.
It's just nasty shit.
Re: (Score:2)
I think I have a new job for you in law enforcement.
You tell him that, he shits himself, and no need for expensive surgery.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not convinced from the article that that he was in as much danger as they say. How did they rule out the possibility that the drive wasn't on its first trip through?
Re:the drive was surgically recovered. (Score:5, Funny)
That does it (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Don't worry, you get them cleaned...
There's basically a "don't ask, don't tell" agreement between law enforcement and recovery. I don't ask just where they got it and they don't wanna tell it anyway...
Soviet Russia (Score:2)
New definition of (Score:5, Funny)
data dump?
Re:New definition of (Score:5, Funny)
Since this is storage, I believe you mean dumping core.
I think he needs more Fibre Channel.
The federal gov't RAIDed his house?
If you consume too many of these drives, you get FAT, worst case you get FAT32.
Good thing he didn't have a tape WORM. (ha! two storage jokes in one!).
DAT is a bad way to backup your data.
The article got it wrong, when asked about the USB drive, he didn't say he "ate it" he said he used ADIC.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
It was a small USB drive. Only one byte.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually he tasted it first, just a nibble.
Re: (Score:2)
what was he arrested for, flashing?
Re: (Score:2)
The punishment should fit the crime...
He should be tarred and feathered.
Re: (Score:2)
But don't worry, once you shit, you'll be exFAT.
New warning on Kingston USB drives (Score:5, Funny)
Do Not Eat (if containing evidence in a federal investigation)
Re: (Score:2)
When they put the warnng label on those. The man can now honestly go "See because of me they need to put that on there"
Could be worse (Score:5, Funny)
Swallowing is your WORST option to erase evidence (Score:2)
Quite frankly. While stomach acid might work to some degree, it's absolutely unreliable and we're not even getting to where it gets stuck inside of you and you're going to be unconscious when they retrieve it.
USB sticks are fragile and tiny. Even during a raid there is plenty of time to get rid of them or destroy them physically. Even if you're arrested on the street, your chances are higher to destroy what you have on you by throwing it on the street. Chances are, before they can retrieve it a few trucks p
USB drives are tough; how about food-based ones? (Score:2)
USB sticks are fragile and tiny. Even during a raid there is plenty of time to get rid of them or destroy them physically. Even if you're arrested on the street, your chances are higher to destroy what you have on you by throwing it on the street. Chances are, before they can retrieve it a few trucks passed over it, or it shattered from the impact altogether.
They may be tiny, but they are not fragile. The worst that is likely to happen if one is run over is that the connector gets crushed. That won't render the data irretrievably lost.
Seriously, try to break one of these things sometime. Without resorting to pliers or some kind of heavy duty shredder, it's pretty tough.
I wonder if it would be possible to make the printed circuit board out of a starch that would dissolve in water?
If the flash chips were erasable by exposure to light (like the old UV-erasable
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I tried a microwave oven once.
Worked perfectly (smelled awful), so... it's not hard if you're trying!
I imagine hooking it up to a brief 220 voltage source would probably do the trick as well - and laundering often works too. Not enough to be relied on, however, since I've laundered 3 flash drives and 1 worked.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems like a bit of an over complex solution when you could
High volume+ effeceint:
1:
encrypt the drive.
2:
encrypt the drive with some deniable style system like truecrypt.
lower volume high secrecy:
3:
carry around a USB key full of your holiday snaps.... and hide an encrypted drive in the least significant bits of the photos.
Re: (Score:2)
Quite frankly. While stomach acid might work to some degree, it's absolutely unreliable and we're not even getting to where it gets stuck inside of you and you're going to be unconscious when they retrieve it.
It's not absolutely reliable, but you could definitely do worse. Gastric acid is largely Hydrochloric acid, which reacts readily with metals like lead and copper commonly used in electronics.
That being said, I really wouldn't recommend eating a USB flash drive. It may or may not actually be effective in destroying the data, could require surgery to remove, could add some nice heavy metals to your diet, could get you charged with destruction of evidence, etc. Much easier to just encrypt the data and memorize
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I've machine washed and dried (accidentally of course) several Sandisk Cruzers, and all functioned perfectly well afterwards. (Yes, I'm comparing agitation in water and tumble dry to throwing it into the street)
I'd say bring a hammer [youtube.com] and just smash it to bits.. even if by throwing it on the street you'd managed to crack the PCB or destroy the USB interface itself, you'd still likely have the actual storage chip intact and readable via other mechanisms. You'd want to smash item #4 in this reference image [wikipedia.org] to
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I dropped a Kingston USB drive in the parking lot at work & didn't realize it was missing till 2 rainy days later. When I found it, it had been ran over by at least one car & was sitting in a puddle. I let it dry out, bent the connector straight, plugged it in & got my data off of it.
Re: (Score:2)
So, was the drive still working? (Score:2)
Because that could make a great ad for Kingston.
On a side note, they make -- albeit expensive -- flash drives with a kill switch. If you're tromping around with incriminating data, it might not be a bad plan to pay a little more cash and be on the safe side. Not that the criminal element was ever known for their forethought.
Re: (Score:2)
Please provide links to these flash drives with kill switches.
Re: (Score:2)
next best thing: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/99f1/ [thinkgeek.com]
Obg. Tex Murphy (with apologies) (Score:3, Funny)
It was only a matter of time before the newly merged Frito-Kingston corporation cornered the chip market.
Hmmm. Might be some kind of record. (Score:2)
Remember the old days when spies would swallow their instructions, written on paper (hopefully they had the foresight to use rice paper)?
I wonder whether this event might qualify for the largest documented quantity of artificially encoded information (as opposed to naturally encoded information like in DNA) ever ingested.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder whether this event might qualify for the largest documented quantity of artificially encoded information (as opposed to naturally encoded information like in DNA) ever ingested.
Yes, the "naturally encoded information" record is held by Michelle Monahan... 1.7 litres of it.
I would volunteer for the research (Score:2)
I work in a chem lab. I would be willing to volunteer time, expertise, and chemicals to test the effects of sulfuric acid at varying concentrations if someone would be willing to donate several Kingston USB drives to test on. Load em up with media and programs, soak in varying concentrations of the acid, clean with distilled water, let dry, attempt to access data. I would imagine the issue would be a matter of liquid tightness of the seals, the chemical makeup of the plastics and metals used in the flash dr
Re: (Score:2)
And what, pray, does sulfuric acid have to do with anything?
Re: (Score:2)
Whoops, I meant hydrochloric. Had a stupid teacher tell me it was sulfuric as a child. Must've stuck in my brain more than I would have liked. Regardless, I have many nasty chemicals accessible to test on the drives. In the name of science, not just morbid curiosity, of course...
Re: (Score:2)
> You have some [sulfuric acid] in your mouth ... RIGHT NOW!
No I don't. I'd notice.
Re: (Score:2)
This too (Score:2)
This too, shall pass.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, that's way funnier than my joke.
Ouch (Score:2)
Here's the "ads by google" that shows up for this article:
https://www.ironkey.com/l-gov-evaluate-1?ik_c=USA_Branding_Content_CPC_Image&ik_t=IronKey-Gov&ik_s=google&ik_k=Content&ik_v=yro.slashdot.org&ik_ad=true [ironkey.com]
I'm glad he didn't try to swallow that one!
Re:Making copies shouldn't be a crime (Score:5, Informative)
The story said he was skimming, not counterfeiting.
Re:Making copies shouldn't be a crime (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure it does. Printing money steals from everyone else with the currency. If you have some amount of value or wealth in your country in terms of goods and land, and suddenly there's twice as much money in circulation, everything would suddenly have to cost twice as much for the same amount of value to be exchanged. In essence, by introducing twice as much money into circulation, the money printer has just stolen half the wealth from all users of the currency. The same thing happens for trivial amounts of money, the effect just isn't as pronounced. The first time it's used the money has the same value as it used to. So the effect is especially nasty because it takes a while to materialize.
I actually knew someone whose job was to negotiate with dictators in African countries to trade $1M for some large quantity of newly printed money in the local currency. He'd then take that money and spend it on as much stuff as he could, take it to America and sell it at a profit. The dictator is happy to have a big pile of almost universally accepted US currency and doesn't understand (or care about) economics well enough to understand that he's just helped someone steal both goods and the intangible value of his country's currency.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, like the government's quantitative easing policy...
Did this friend of yours contribute to the laughable state of the zimbabwean economy? I bought a 100 trillion zimbabwe dollar bill a while ago just for fun, its worth about 3 cents.
Re: (Score:2)
That could never amount to anything significant! [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Don't be intentionally dense. It's theft, no way around it. Instead of stealing from you personally, the counterfeiter steals a marginal amount of value from everyone holding that currency by just a small amount. All objects have value, which is a combination of the effort that went into creating it, the demand for that object and the scarcity of that object.
Without a fixed or regulated amount of money in existence, it has no value. If I print $1 trillion in cash tomorrow and hand it out on the streets, sud
Re: (Score:2)
Your house and other goods you owned would still retain value (and its value in terms of the currency would actually increase since more of the devalued currency would be required to purchase a house), the only thing that would lose value is any cash you held.
Obviously if you wanted to sell those goods, you wouldn't accept payment in a currency that was rapidly losing value. This is why people in countries with hyperinflation typically abandon the local currency and deal in dollars or euros.
Re: (Score:2)
Not neccessarily, A house in a country with a functioning economy and useful medium of trade is worth way more than a house somewhere without that.
Re: (Score:2)
If a store takes your fake twenty and you walk away with a product, that store cannot re-spend that twenty. The store has lost a product. Theft.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the confusion stems from the fact that we are talking about money (even though it's not real).
A better example would be instead you getting counterfeit money, you are trading for a fake Rolex watch.
So you trade your car for a watch you thought worth $1000. After the trade you found out its real value is $10. Would you call that theft?
Wait a second I think there is a term for this kind of situation...I think it's something that rhyme with 'floor'....It's fraud!
Is fraud the same as th
Re: (Score:2)
It's NOT theft
So you have an xbox for sale on craigslist, and a guy comes over and pays you $200 for it. When you go deposit that money in the bank you're told it's counterfeit and useless - So you have no xbox and no $200. Has that guy stolen your xbox?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. The fake bills never had value in the first place and you were tricked into making an exchange for something worthless.
If, on the other hand, he paid you with good US currency and tomorrow the economy collapsed and the bills were worthless, you now have no xbox and a worthless pile of bills whose face value is still $200. Your xbox was NOT stolen from you.
Re: (Score:2)
It worked in Zimbabwe [wordpress.com], it can work here!
Re: (Score:2)
Feel free. It’s not theft.*
*Other applicable anti-counterfeiting laws still apply.
Counterfeiting is illegal because it’s a government-backed monopoly, and for good reason. The Federal Reserve is the only entity permitted to create US currency. Similarly, patents and trademarks are government-backed monopolies on particular methods and logos. However, counterfeiting, copyright infringement, and unauthorized use of trademark are not theft.
Spending counterfeit bills is theft for a different reason
Re: (Score:2)
Uh.. of course it's stolen. The value is stolen. Your {currency unit}'s utility is reduced and the counterfeiter gains {currency unit} with a value roughly equal to the aggregated loss of buying power.
You are deprived of "ability to get stuff" and the counterfeiter has more of the thing you were deprived of. How is that not stealing?
Re: (Score:2)
The value is stolen. Your {currency unit}'s utility is reduced and the counterfeiter gains {currency unit} with a value roughly equal to the aggregated loss of buying power.
In the same sense that the horse-and-buggy industry’s value was “stolen” by the automobile industry, sure.
Re: (Score:2)
The automobile industry supplanted the horse/buggy combo (except in Amish country, I guess) because it introduced a product with greater utility, mass reproducibility, economy of scale, and value than the average horse. On the other hand, a counterfeiter introduces a "product" which has no purpose but a one-way transfer of value to the counterfeiter through the reduction of value of legitimate goods.
How is that not theft? You've been asked that question by three differen
Re: (Score:2)
Uh.. of course it's stolen. The value is stolen.
That's actually called fractional reserve banking. As to how it's not stealing, well, ask the Fed...
Seriously tho, if you're worried about the loss of value of a fiat currency, don't store your buying power in it. No counterfeiter in the world can do anything near what's done every day by those running the monetary systems.
Re: (Score:2)
The dictator may be unable to export the goods himself, perhaps due to sanctions or similar... Or he may have to export them on the black market and accept an extremely poor price for them.
Re: (Score:2)
I think I’ve gotten e-mails from some of those guys.
In seriousness, though, even then you’re providing a service for the money you make. You’re doing something that he either can’t do or simply would prefer not to do himself.
Re: (Score:2)
No. The value of their currency is reduced. Nothing was stolen. It's just worth less than it was before.
I have a dumb question: If I use a fake twenty at a store, and then they turn around and take that to the bank, and the bank says "that's counterfit!"... does't that mean the store is out the $20?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Care to explain how that relates?
You have stolen from the store because the arrangement was that they give you $20 worth of real goods in exchange for $20 face-value in US currency. You took $20 worth of goods and did not give them $20 in US currency. That’s theft. You stole from the store.
Re: (Score:2)
I apologize if I'm being dim, here. I've just woken up and haven't had my required dose of coffee yet. I will be up front with you and tell you I have not read all the way up the thread. But I don't quite get why it doesn't relate.
The point was made at the beginning that counterfitting doesn't hurt anybody. But it's conceded that it lowers the value of the money. Then it's claimed that lowering the value of money isn't theft. I don't really get this one either, you're leaving people with less value th
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But what's the point of counterfitting? It's so you can go spend money that you didn't really earn. The result? You end up with stuff and the other guy ends up losing stuff with nothing of comparable value to show for it. I do not get why that is not theft.
That IS theft.
My argument is with the claim that “Printing money steals from everyone else with the currency” by reducing the value of their money. Reducing the value of their money is not theft.
If you print ten million dollars in fake $20s and buy a mansion, you stole from the person who sold it to you. If the fake $20s are excellent forgeries and successfully make it undetected into the market, reducing the value of everyone’s dollar by 2 cents, you did not steal 2 cents from everyone
Re: (Score:2)
Ah. I get you now.
You have a tough battle ahead of you on this argument. The first problem is that counterfeiting isn't something that anybody does for any purpose other than to receive ill-gotten gains. It's not like somebody is, for example, using counterfeit money to wallpaper their room. They take the money and use it to steal something from somebody. The second problem is that often the money is successfully used to exchange goods. It is later discovered and is taken back out of circulation. Whoeve
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
No. The value of their currency is reduced. Nothing was stolen. It’s just worth less than it was before.
1 a : to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully. d : to appropriate to oneself or beyond one's proper share. 3 a : to seize, gain, or win by trickery [merriam-webster.com]
I've pretty sure you just said value/worth was stolen.
Care to try again?
Re: (Score:2)
Value/worth is not something that can be stolen. It exists only if people agree it exists.
If you have a $20 bill, there’s no arguing that it exists. However, the only reason it has any value is because it is backed by the US government... and if that value is less tomorrow, nothing has been “stolen” from you. People simply value it less than they did before.
Re: (Score:2)
You have done something illegal that made me poorer and you richer. Yes, it was illegal. Yes, it was immoral.
It was not, however, stealing: I have exactly the same as I did before. What I have is simply less valuable than it used to be.
Re: (Score:2)
What's the difference between the two
In one case, something left my wallet. In the other case, it didn’t.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be worried about it getting stuck in the intestines, since it probably won't do much dissolving.
Re:Surgery? They did... 4 days (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
RTFA? You do know this is /., right?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There was a Slashdot article on Kingston a week or so ago covering this topic.
Re: (Score:2)
If you encrypt a drive and refuse to hand over the key, isn't that nearly as bad?
Re:Hope it was RoHS compliant... (Score:5, Funny)
A man brings his pet monkey to a bar. The monkey runs around eating everything in sight. First the cherries used for garnish. Then all the peanuts. Then the deviled eggs. Finally, he stops after eating a cue ball off the pool table.
The next week, the man returns with his monkey. Once again, the monkey runs to devour the cherries. But this time, instead of just eating it, he shoves the cherry up his ass first, pulls it out and then eats it. The bartender, quite disturbed by this, asks the man why the hell he shoved it up his ass first. The man replies, "Well, after the cue ball incident, he checks the size first before eating anything"...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Here in the US, refusal to decrypt encrypted data has been interpreted by judges as valid evidence for the accusation.
Even the fifth constitutional amendment does not appear to give you protection here -- if you get accused for a major crime like murder, terrorism or illegal copies of music, you apparently can't refuse to decrypt your data on the basis that you then would incriminate you for a lesser offence (like e.g. having used a false address, having bought Cuban cigars, what have you).
There's no incent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Rights violation? (Score:5, Informative)
REGIS: For $16,000, the question is, 'What right do they have to risk the life of a presumed innocent man with dangerous surgery?' Your choices are...
A. The Patriot Act
B. The Alien and Sedition Act
C. The Jack Bauer Act
D. The part where he agreed to the surgery.
CONTESTANT: Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Um. I'd like to use a lifeline.
REGIS: Alright! Which lifeline would you like to use?
CONTESTANT: I think I'm going to use my "Read The Fucking Article" lifeline, Regis.
REGIS: Alright! Computer, please print out a copy of the article for our contestant!
CONTESTANT: *reads* Regis, I'm going to have to go with 'D', "The part where he agreed to the surgery."
REGIS: Final answer?
CONTESTANT: Final answer.
Re: (Score:2)
Read the article. They surgically removed the thing, with his permission, when he had not passed it after four days. Intestinal obstructions can be fatal.
Re: (Score:2)
Read the article. They surgically removed the thing, with his permission, when he had not passed it after four days. Intestinal obstructions can be fatal.
So can prison.
I just don't understand why he oped for the more painful method of death.
He might think he has some legal chance to get out of this, but it doesn't appear so. In fact I would say his actions show he is perfectly aware of how screwed he is/could-be.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In fact I would say his actions show he is perfectly aware of how screwed he is/could-be.
The USB stick is a red herring. The REAL evidence is on the microSD card he shoved up his nose.
Re:Rights violation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't this man considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law?
No, not at all. He is in America, and we don't do that sort of thing anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Seems that going to jail for destroying evidence in a Federal investigation and having loose chips clinging and tearing their way down your intestines was worse than having to stand trial for the other crimes.