Could you be framed by your computer?

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 12:43 PM on January 24, 2007.

Overview

Julie Amero is the CT teacher facing up to 40 years in prison because her malware-riddled PC generated a deluge of pornographic popups during class. Independent analyses of her computer show that her browser was involuntarily redirected to pornographic websites because of malicious software.

Amero was eventually charged with four felonies in connection with the malware incident. She turned down a probation plea, knowing that she could face up to 40 years in prison if she were convicted.

Please see my earlier AlterNet article for more details on Julie Amero and her legal battle.

More Media Traction

The good news is that the Amero story is starting to get traction outside the Norwich Bulletin and the blogosphere. PC Magazine ran a special report called "Free the Norwich 1!" and called Amero's case a miscarriage of justice. In a Colbert-like threat-down feature, PC Mag names overzealous prosecutors who go after users of malware-infested computers as a Top Threat.

The Exculpatory Evidence Explained

Alex Eckelberry, President of Sunbelt Software, reviewed the data from Amero's hard drive with defense expert Herb Horner. In this blog post, Eckelberry gets down to the nitty gritty technical details that prove Amero is innocent. Horner gives a meticulous account of his digital post-mortem on Amero's machine.

Local IT Guys Making Excuses

The Day sent a reporter to cover last night's Board of Ed meeting, where the Norwich school district's IT director tried to explain why he had allowed the school's content filtering software to lapse between August and October, 2004.

Information Services Director Bob Hartz went into full CYA mode on the Julie Amero case. Harris told attendees that it was "just a fluke" that Amero's computer displayed porn that day in 2004.

From August to October 2004, the district's filtering system didn't regularly add newly discovered pornographic sites to its restricted Web sites database.

Hartz said Norwich's filtering software generally worked in 2004, but new offensive sites weren't blocked partly because Symantec, creator of the school's WebNOT computer filter, failed to send him a licensing certificate to activate the software's updates feature.

"I don't think we've ever compromised on being able to fund our firewall ... and (other) filtering software," Norwich Superintendent Pam Aubin said. "We're very lucky to fund a full-time information systems director." [NB]

Symantec didn't send Hartz a licensing certificate? Perhaps, as Hartz suggested, that was because he didn't pay the bill.

Board of Ed member Frank Krasicki, a computer scientist and former teacher, told Ed-Tech Insider that Hartz's lapse was unacceptable:

It is inexcusable that no action was taken to upgrade the protective software at that time (they had the summer to do it). And it explains why nobody thought much of Amero's experience at the time, essentially telling her "not to worry about it." [ETI]

Krasicki also posted an interesting essay at Region 19 BOE Gazette: Why Julie Amero Matters--Computers and Society.

Startling Disclosure About the Police's Forensic Software

Here's yet more interesting news from the Norwich Bulletin on ComputerCop Pro, the blackbox software the police used to examine Amero's computer:

David Jacobs, a former police officer and sales representative for the ComputerCop, which is based in Bohemia, N.Y., said Amero's case establishes a legal precedent for subsequent court cases.

"To my knowledge, this is the first conviction using ComputerCop software as an acceptable tool for police officers to conduct a computer forensic examination that is acceptable to the court," Jacobs said. [NB] (Emphasis added.)

Network Performance Daily interviewed Steve DelGiorno, CEO of ComputerCop:

Mr. DelGiorno stated in a phone conversation with us that while ComputerCOP can find all sorts of files and images, including deleted images or images in unallocated disk space, by keyword or by filetype, ComputerCOP does not determine the cause of those files being on the computer (whether caused by malware, intrusion, or direct and willful use), and that it is not the function of ComputerCOP to make that determination." [NPD]

NPD will run a commentary by prosecution expert witness Mark Lounsbury tomorrow. Lounsbury was the officer who testified that Amero must have "physically clicked" on pornographic links in order to generate the popup barrage.

[Huffington Post, PC Magazine, Network Performance Daily]

Tagged as: porn, julie amero, malware, computer, norwich

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.