Why You Shouldn't Trust Geek Squad (networkworld.com) 389
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Network World: The Orange County Weekly reports that Best Buy's "Geek Squad" repair technicians routinely search devices brought in for repair for files that could earn them $500 reward as FBI informants. This revelation came out in a court case, United States of America v. Mark A. Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier is a prominent Orange County physician and surgeon who took his laptop to the Mission Viejo Best Buy in November 2011 after he was unable to start it. According to court records, Geek Squad technician John "Trey" Westphal found an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck." Westphal notified his boss, who was also an FBI informant, who alerted another FBI informant -- as well as the FBI itself. The FBI has pretty much guaranteed the case will be thrown out by its behavior, this illegal search aside. According to Rettenmaier's defense attorney, agents conducted two additional searches of the computer without obtaining necessary warrants, lied to trick a federal magistrate judge into authorizing a search warrant for his home, then tried to cover up their misdeeds by initially hiding records. Plus, the file was found in the unallocated "trash" space, meaning it could only be retrieved by "carving" with sophisticated forensics tools. Carving (or file carving) is defined as searching for files or other kinds of objects based on content, rather than on metadata. It's used to recover old files that have been deleted or damaged. To prove child pornography, you have to prove the possessor knew what he had was indeed child porn. There has been a court case where files found on unallocated space did not constitute knowing possession because it's impossible to determine who put the file there and how, since it's not accessible to the user under normal circumstances.
Similarly (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Why the heck would he need to login?!
Do you have a hot wife, or do you look rich enough to have one?
Re: (Score:3)
Do you have a hot wife, or do you look rich enough to have one?
Having a Macbook sums it up!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Eh? I've never had the Apple Store ask me for my password. What they've asked me is if I have my data backed up (Answer is always yes... to three different places, actually.); because when they depot your computer they run a full diagnostic and anything is even a little bit out of spec they pull and replace the component. So you're very likely to get it back with a fresh HD imaged back to the default OS version that shipped with it.
Re: (Score:2)
Their "repairs" are even more criminal (Score:5, Funny)
than their warrantless searches
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
https://diskdigger.org/howitworks [diskdigger.org]
I've been using it for years to recover deleted files or photos and it also does carving, Works on any HD formatting scheme I've ever run across.
Re: (Score:2)
Another argument for encryption.
Re: (Score:2)
They are full of shit (Score:5, Interesting)
GeekSquad is full of shit. Was away on a working vacation (being a remote employee who travels the country and logs in from wherever I happen to be at the time). My laptop died on a trip. Needed it replaced ASAP. Picked up a netbook from BestBuy locally, since shipping one would take too long. They were the only option in town where I happened to be at the time. The power supply on this netbook died in under a week. Took it in to BestBuy to replace the power supply. GeekSquad demanded a $40 "fee" to remove the hard drive from the netbook, and place the hard drive into a new netbook... Again, for a failed power supply, which is external to the netbook to begin with! They simply wouldn't replace the power supply, they claimed they could only replace the entire unit, and had to swap the hard drive. Fucking scammers. So much for the BestBuy "Warranty"
journalism majors can BS people into upsells (Score:4, Insightful)
journalism majors can BS people into upsells and that is why the tech people where just stockboys.
Re: (Score:3)
There's being politely greeted.
And then there's having some pushy twat try to up-sell you to a $149.99 gold-plated HDMI cable, a $39 extended warranty and service plan to go with it, and a $99 installation service to have Geek Squad come to your house and plug it into your TV; when you're already annoyed that you're (over)paying Best Buy $40 for an HDMI cable because you need it on short notice and can't wait for the $10 one to arrive from Amazon.
As it should be... (Score:5, Insightful)
And, the individuals involved should be sued into homelessness for invasion of privacy, etc. Best Buy, too, to the extent they were aware and didn't prevent it.
Re: (Score:3)
He could have been the subject of a rick-roll type thing
That explains the 300 Goatse images in my deleted file space.
Re: (Score:2)
That explains the 300 Goatse images in my deleted file space.
You surely have it well backuped!
Re: (Score:2)
Kiddie porn on a computer doesn't imply guilt for the owner.
True. Maybe the kid came onto him.
Re: (Score:2)
Kiddie porn on a computer doesn't imply guilt for the owner.
Are you a lawyer? Considering the many people arrested for having kiddie porn on their computer, your argument doesn't seem to hold in a court of law.
Re: (Score:3)
Just guess what happens if the malware du jour, instead of sending spam or encrypting your files, plants some kiddie porn then gives you an offer. Or, if you have said something not expressing love towards Hillary/Trump/Putin/Erdogan, not say anything to you and call law enforcement immediately?
Re:As it should be... (Score:5, Insightful)
In any case, if I were a low paid tech worker, I think I would have significant incentive to fabricate evidence. $500 is a weeks pay, at least, for these guys.
Re:As it should be... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well that's the whole point..
If you visit a link, you have no idea what that link is going to contain... You may follow an innocent looking link, and see childporn. Even if you immediately close the page, your browser has likely inserted the images into its local on-disk cache.
Similarly if you receive an email containing such content, it will typically be downloaded automatically to your machine, even if you immediately delete it upon noticing it there will still be traces on your drive for some time to come.
It's also possible for a website to load images but not make them visible, such images will still be cached by your browser but if they're not displayed your unlikely to realise they're there unless you explicitly check.
Re:As it should be... (Score:5, Funny)
If you think of the children all the time, chances are good you're a pedo.
what else do they look for? (Score:5, Insightful)
This one was a possible paedophile. Since it was only one photo, it was probably something sent to him, or from a popup on some random website.
What else do they look for? Credit card numbers? Tax records? Other identity theft info? Anything embarrassing they can ransom?
The other problem is they used a tool to scan unallocated space for deleted files. That takes time. Are they charging customers for that extra time?
Re: (Score:3)
The other problem is they used a tool to scan unallocated space for deleted files. That takes time. Are they charging customers for that extra time?
I would not be even a little bit surprised.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
What else do they look for? Credit card numbers? Tax records? Other identity theft info? Anything embarrassing they can ransom?
I'd be much more concerned about what they can/will put on there to implicate you. Rewards do funny things to people, they become most shady when money is involved. I wonder how many instances of planting of illegal items, reporting it and collecting the $$$ occurs.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be much more concerned about what they can/will put on there to implicate you. Rewards do funny things to people, they become most shady when money is involved. I wonder how many instances of planting of illegal items, reporting it and collecting the $$$ occurs.
Given the fact these guys are smart enough to have a job at geek squad how many would be able to pull it off without leaving incriminating forensic evidence?
If there are more than a few instances I would expect someone to have learned about file system structures and transaction logs at their hearing before being carted off to jail.
But where's the chain of custody? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a second concern along the same lines . . . let us assume that the Geek Squad isn't engaging in shenanigans for profit. How are they inspecting my hard drive, and can they assure me that they won't cause a data loss?
Re:But where's the chain of custody? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was taking an information security certification course from an interesting character. He was a USMC sniper, police officer on a narc team, then a lecturer offering courses in Microsoft and security certifications, and running a part time data forensics job with one of his old friends. He says he gets a call from the local PD about data recovery on a computer that they say has child porn on it. My instructor tells his partner not to touch the computer. Then tells him that as mere possession of child porn is a felony the only way they could legally touch this is with some kind of immunity or being deputized. The partner seemed to really want the job since it could mean good money and putting a bad guy away. My instructor, a retired police officer, knew that being in possession of child porn regardless of the source is going to be problematic.
He talked a bit more on this and he seemed to imply that child porn cases can fetch good money for the technicians because so few people are willing to do it. There is an obvious "ick" factor that so many healthy people have. There are legal problems to deal with, as in all your ducks in a row or by doing exactly as the PD requests can still end up with getting charged with a crime.
So, you have a presumably high dollar and experienced technician with considerable knowledge on how files can be hidden as well as a beat cop level of legal knowledge on this, and he won't touch it for what I can assume is much more than the $500 that these "geeks" could get. Do these Geek Squad people even know what they are doing? Can they be trusted? Would they be willing to be a witness in court? Would the prosecutor even want the typical Geek Squad member testifying in court?
I can see no good coming from these Geek Squad types looking for incriminating evidence.
Re:But where's the chain of custody? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yup. There was a case a few years back where a person found a bag full of unmarked CD's... took 'em home, stuck 'em in his computer, and found child porn. He turned them into the local PD, who eventually found and arrested the perp.
For being a good citizen, the finder was rewarded by being convicted for possessing child porn and sent to prison.
I would have thought that... (Score:2)
"they work at Best Buy" was a sufficient clue...
Seriously. How competent can they be?
I wouldn't trust geek squad (Score:4, Interesting)
Because four times last year, I repaired systems they said were unrepairable and had attempted to sell a replacement system.
They used to be tech, now they are systems salesmen
Why you shouldn't trust the FBI (Score:2)
More like "Why you shouldn't trust the FBI"
This is about more than Best Buy (Score:5, Interesting)
The Geek Squad techs were, according to the article, "active informants" for the FBI, which is to say, they agreed to be beforehand. That means they are agents of the government, which means they are under the same restrictions as the cops. So if you think it's OK for Geek Squad to search your computer without a warrant, you believe it's OK for the cops to do the same thing, because it is the same thing.
Aside from that, the FBI did additional searches without warrants, like to get warrants, and apparently continues to hide evidence. They claimed the informants told them they (the informants, that is) had "accidentally" run the carving software that was, in no way, involved in repairing the computer, and found the image. So either the informants (at least one, and likely all three) lied to the FBI under penalty of perjury, or the FBI agent getting the warrant perjured himself to the judge. Or both.
There isn't an FBI agent involved in this case that doesn't belong in prison for corruption. Same for the prosecutor, at this point, because it is long since possible for him to not be aware of the FBI's corruption.
Best Buy is the least guilty of anything, and apparently, according to the update at the bottom, actually have policies prohibiting their employees from accepting any kind of reward for reporting this stuff. Whether or not they'll fire the employees named (there are three) for doing so remains to be seen. They are correct, though, that once they become aware of child porn on a computer, they're required to report it.
Re: (Score:3)
So either the informants (at least one, and likely all three) lied to the FBI under penalty of perjury, or the FBI agent getting the warrant perjured himself to the judge. Or both.
While it's clear that the Geek Squad agents are obviously acting as paid officials of the FBI in this case, they did not, even if they lied, commit perjury in any form. Just a claim from an anonymous tip can be enough to get someone's house searched and it'll stick in court. Even if the anonymous tip was found to be inaccurate. The police love tips that allow them to search the property of people whom they're interested in. The warrant has to be specific, but they can pick up any evidence of other crime
Meaning... (Score:2)
If I'm into child porn then I should be regularly having my computer serviced by Geek Squad.
When I get busted I can now blame that they planted it to receive a reward?
The legal stuff doesn't matter that much. (Score:5, Insightful)
You can analyse validity of warrants and question the admissibility of evidence all you want, but that overlooks a fact: Most prosecutions don't go to trial. They end in plea bargains. Sure, that particular evidence might be unusable - but the fact that the FBI knows about it may well be enough to get the suspect to confess anyway. The particular example in the article did lawyer up and fight it, but how many times has a similar story happened that didn't become interesting and public enough to get noticed?
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Also, when you need a plumber you dont call the homeless that hangs out downtown who likes to smack copper pipes together to make "music". Doing so would be comparable to calling Geek Squad when you need a computer technician.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I don't mind. Because I don't have any illegal drugs or child pornography for the plumber to find.
What about the illegal drugs and child pornography that the previous occupant left hidden in the wall, next to the water pipes? You know, the ones you now have to prove aren't yours?
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Interesting)
What about the illegal drugs and child pornography that the previous occupant left hidden in the wall, next to the water pipes?
Something like that happened to a friend of mine. He bought a warehouse and found a big stash of dvd players and car stereos in a walled-off closet when he gutted the office area. The warehouse had been owned by a bank (foreclosure) for a while, and if he hadn't needed a different office configuration the stuff could have stayed in the walls for a long time.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Similar thing happened to a family member of mine as well when he bought his first house. He is a police officer and had a bunch of his cop friends visit. One stopped by at the start of his shift to drop of a present and brought in his canine partner. Well, the dog alerted in the middle of the living room and they discovered a stash hidden there. So they took the dog around the property and found a bunch of stuff in multiple rooms, including those bales like you see on TV. I can only imagine the kind of response that he would have gotten if the cops weren't his friends and knew he'd just bought the house.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Or, what if that porn you downloaded, legitimate other than for copyright, contains kiddie stuff? Especially if it's been sitting on your disk for months, awaiting its turn to be watched?
Thus, you need to immediately go and watch the entirety of your porn stash! All of it, not just the beginning of every piece -- it's an obvious trick to hide it from cursory search by attaching a fake part at the start.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Funny)
what about that home video recorder i left behind the drywall behind the fridge 20 years ago? i just woke up from my comma yesterday
Well you had better put your parentheses on. You're scaring the kids.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm always suspicious of single parenthesis. Why'd the other leave?
There was just too much between them.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Informative)
You trust strangers every time you hand someone your credit card or read the # over the phone (...)
You trust the professionals to whom you request a specific service (and usually you pay) to perform that specific service. You don't ask them to look for interesting files, have the illegal ones reported, and some other legal files not reported but used illegally by them.
Re: Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. The bigger issue is that they are looking through all your files. The number of people who have nude pictures of themselves or other people legally far outweighs the number of people with illegal pictures. This means that the guys at Geek Squad will definitely lookat the nude pics of their customers. Even the ones that were intentionally deleted by people before they take their computers in for service to prevent such a thing.
If this is not a violation of privacy then what is? Why are they looking in the first place if they usually only find legal stuff? What do they do with the legal nudes they typically find? Do they also shows those to the other FBI informants/repair monkeys they work with? Or maybe make personal copies?
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
You trust strangers every time you hand someone your credit card or read the # over the phone. You trust your bank with the history of all your credit purchases. You trust other strangers when you hand over your car keys to the garage or a valet. You trust them when you give them your house keys so they can inspect something while you're at work. You trust, not just one doctor or one nurse, but an entire health care organization with your medical history and details when you go into a hospital to get a checkup or sick care.
People have to live their lives.
But my doctor isn't paid $500 by the FBI if he "finds" a balloon full of cocaine up my ass.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Insightful)
Buddy, if I have to check up your ass for anything, somebody better pay me $500 AND take me out to dinner
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Informative)
Great. It should only require a few years of dealing with tough-on-crime prosecutors and judges to make use of that, whilst your name is being publically dragged through the mud.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Great. It should only require a few years of dealing with tough-on-crime prosecutors and judges to make use of that, whilst your name is being publically dragged through the mud.
Yes, exactly. Only people who have little first-hand experience with law enforcement or the courts would think that being innocent will make things easier. An innocent person can easily be bankrupted and have their lives altered by having to defend themselves against the criminal justice system.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, exactly. Only people who have little first-hand experience with law enforcement or the courts would think that being innocent will make things easier.
Or that being innocent even matters.
Many prosecutors couldn't care less about your guilt or innocence- what guides them is if they think they have a winnable case or not.
Re: Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, you didn't. But for $500 some kid at Best Buy might put some on your computer for you.
You sick pedo fuck.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Where is your name? Are you trying to hide something?
Re: (Score:2)
so what if you get them from just an ad on a web site, malware, or what happened to Julie Amero?
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I don't mind. Because I don't have any illegal drugs or child pornography for the plumber to find.
Exactly what are you afraid of them finding?
There are currently over 10,000 federal statutes. Can you say, categorically, that you are not currently breaking any of them?
Ignorance of the law is not a defense. It is entirely possible to be breaking a law and have no idea you are doing so. Still want to let people, who are looking for wrongdoing, nose through all your stuff?
Anyone arguing that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear really needs to reexamine their assumptions.
Re: (Score:3)
There are currently over 10,000 federal statutes. Can you say, categorically, that you are not currently breaking any of them?
Have any copyrighted pictures or videos that you don't have a receipt for? Rip a copyrighted tune from Youtube? Have a friend send any of those? Have a normal photo of your female child in a bathing suit at the shore? Some minimum wage geeksquad drone figuring that 500 dollars is 500 dollars, and "better safe than sorry", welcome to the legal system.
We have to set limits on accessibility, and the old "nothing to hide" is a bad slippery slope.
Finally, anyone claiming to know exactly what is or isn't on
Re: (Score:3)
There are currently over 10,000 federal statutes. Can you say, categorically, that you are not currently breaking any of them?
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." -- Cardinal Richelieu
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Funny)
Because the legal eagles at Best Buy's geek squad are so careful not to report non-crimes and raise a massive shit storm over nothing. Certainly, they would never grab a copy of anything else interesting they might find while rifling through your file system.
Certainly they would never look at any private but legal images hoping to find something to report.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Insightful)
It makes me wonder how much Tumblr porn came from Best Buy uploaders.
Perhaps none.
Maybe they're all great people.
But they vacuum machines for reward money, or at least a few of them have, says the article. Most of them are probably great. But a few of them have sullied the reputation of the Geek Squad, perhaps beyond repair.
The big problem: a lot of good people at Geek Squad get besmirched for the actions of some greedy fellow employees. It would seem that management likely knew about this. What protections do they provide their customers? They should spell it out and enforce it. Data is money, assets, and pretty private stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
The big problem: a lot of good people at Geek Squad get besmirched for the actions of some greedy fellow employees.
But I'm sure some of them are great people. Better build a wall around them.
Re: (Score:3)
This is Best Buy we're talking about. I'd already be surprised if they didn't take a cut of those 500 bucks.
Why, you think they only rip off their customers?
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Shouldn't TFH be "Why someone who engages in criminal behavior shouldn't trust Geek Squad?"
What about if you have legal adult naked videos/pictures of yourself having sex with your wife? Do you want the teenage geek squad employee to look through those videos/pictures too? After all, he would need to look inside those videos/pictures if he wants to ascertain what they contain.
Not only that, but he's looking at the deleted files too. So even if you or your wife deleted that content, he will be able to find it. The same goes for your phone. I assume the FBI has the same deal with cell phone repair technicians. Do they also look scan/watch all your pictures/videos including your deleted ones too?
And at Best Buy during work, how does it work if a manager catches an employee going through the private videos/pictures of customers? Does the manager give the employee a free pass if the employee offers to split the FBI reward with him? Or does the employee need to make a copy of the hard drive to bring home to review at home at his leisure? How does that work exactly?
Re: (Score:3)
If you know how to do any of that, you're not taking your computer to Best Buy to be fixed.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not really...
A single file was found in deleted space on this guy's machine, was he truly a criminal who intentionally sought out illegal material or did he have this single file on his machine through no fault or intention of his own? (eg browser cache, malware, spam etc)
At the very least, i'd expect someone who was actively looking for such material to have a lot more of it than just a single deleted file.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. If there was ever a case where reasonable doubt it would be one where a single illegal image was found.
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:5, Informative)
Since you ask:
US Constitution, Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home
or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has
the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Anything else you'd like me to Google for you?
Re: (Score:3)
Anything else you'd like me to Google for you?
I'm struggling to find out the speed of light - can you help me please.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:4, Funny)
One day when they create a relativity drive that is able to travel faster than the speed of light I really hope they call it C++
Re: Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:3, Informative)
You have all rights. The Bill of Rights lists the rights Congress is explicitly never to infringe upon.
"The right there specified is that of "bearing arms for a lawful purpose." This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed, but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effec
Re: (Score:3)
Why do people believe your rights come from a document?
Your rights come from some group of people, somewhere, some time, maybe even you, right now, standing up and saying no. If a lot of us believe random other people (state actors or not) should not go pawing through our lives without just cause, then that's how society should work because we ARE society.
And absolutely no, I do not believe Best Buy has any business going through their customers' property in any way beyond that needed to perform the servic
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Why "I" shouldn't trust Geek Squad? (Score:2, Insightful)
I worked at best buy both in computer and geek squad.
I can say with certainty that everyone's computers were searched for music, videos, jpg, etc (so they could be backed up allegedly)
These "backups" were definitely shared with other techs in the event of anything interesting was found which most often was the case.
Customers usually had tons of photos, music, etc. Most of the time it didn't include illegal stuff so though. I know one of the stores I worked at had a huge library of pilfered mp3.
I would nev
Re: (Score:3)
Re:No shit Sherlock (Score:4, Insightful)
And how do you do that with a computer with solder-in SSD (e.g, MBAir)?
Re: (Score:2)
And how do you do that with a computer with solder-in SSD (e.g, MBAir)?
Well, you don't buy one in the first place.
Re:No shit Sherlock (Score:5, Funny)
A 3/8" drill, duh! :)
Strat
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody has the right, but that doesn't mean they won't do it. No one has the right to pick your pocket or break into your house, but... you know where this is going.
Even I don't have any illegal stuff of any kind in my computers and, a few months ago, when I sent a laptop to repair the keyboard (single key replacement), something that absolutely needs no software interaction by the technicians, I wiped my drive completely. More than the fear of anything illegal being found, I was afraid for my own personal
Re: No shit Sherlock (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
...and with a few moments of searching the web, they could have a nice handy thumb drive full of images they would "detect" on some guy's computer, and get a nice little bonus from the FBI...
"Yeeeah, I found another one this week. Yup, it's surprising how many of these weirdos have computer problems and show up at my store. How soon does my check get here?"
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, he might be paedophile, or just someone who downloaded some file expecting it to be something else and deleted it immediately... hence it being in the trash.
Stories of people downloading stuff, either by direct download or P2P and ending up with something different aren't all that rare.
Even a few months ago there was a story of someone downloading what they believed to be Ubuntu ISOs (IIRC), only to find out they were pretty nasty hardcore porn.
And like the article says, would a person smart enough to
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
Which is why if you do accidentally download something like that, you must clear your cache, empty the recycle bin and repeatedly overwrite all the free space on your disk.
Emphatically YES! Smarts in one narrow field doesn't guarantee smarts in every field: John Podesta is a Smart Guy, but he was stupid enough to fall for a phishing attack.
Re: (Score:2)
Which is why if you do accidentally download something like that, you must clear your cache, empty the recycle bin and repeatedly overwrite all the free space on your disk.
Yes, because everyone knows how to do that. And of course, the commands to perform those actions are so easily available...
Emphatically YES! Smarts in one narrow field doesn't guarantee smarts in every field: John Podesta is a Smart Guy, but he was stupid enough to fall for a phishing attack.
It's not a "field", it's common sense. He doesn't need to be an IT expert to know that he's taking chances if he sends a knowingly tainted computer for repair. It's just pure common sense, nothing else.
Re: (Score:3)
For at least 250 years, it's been known that, "common sense is not so common."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes I have. Almost daily, actually. And I'm not talking about mission-critical knowledge in all else. I'm talking about pure and simple common sense.
Re:"Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Illegally searched his computer, get paid to find illegal material and HEY SURPRISE I FOUND ILLEGAL MATERIAL WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Lie to a judge to obtain a search warrant, etc. etc."
There's a reason we demand a certain level of ethics from our law enforcement professionals, mainly so that the cases they put together have even a slim chance of making it through a trial without being tossed out by even a barely competent judge. Did this guy have child porn on his computer? Who knows, the Geek Squad guys have so completely muddled the issue to line their own pockets with the FBI's help we'll never find out.
I often wonder if you "by any means" types would be so cavalier about situations like this if it were you under the FBI's lens.
Re: (Score:2)
Because they illegally search you computer thus showing an incredible lack of ethics.
The outcome of the specific case is immaterial.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
https://slashdot.org/~hcs_%24r... [slashdot.org] (first one)
Re: (Score:3)