Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!bbn.com!cosell From: cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: "Bad" backups Message-ID: <61265@bbn.BBN.COM> Date: 2 Dec 90 12:27:36 GMT References: <36371@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1990Nov20.041806.29066@digibd.com> <1990Nov22.123610.27246@eff.org> Sender: news@bbn.com Lines: 39 mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes: }In article <1990Nov20.041806.29066@digibd.com> merlyn@digibd.com (Brian Westley (Merlyn LeRoy)) writes: }>You're all missing the most obvious solution: }> }>Old Adage: Never write anything down. }> }>New Adage: Keep everything in RAM. }> }>Cops usually remove what they are searching for, and I doubt they }>would give a second thought about turning the computer off & unplugging it. }Actually, this is false. Articles written by dedicated-computer-crime-unit }"experts" like Catherine Conly and John McEwan advise law-enforcement }agents to bust down the doors of computer criminals rather than }knocking and announcing their identity on entry--precisely because of }the possibility that data might be lost of the alleged criminals have }a chance to shut their systems off. }Good thing they have you to confirm the need for their }no-knock-entry prescriptions. But... I hate to give aid and comfort to the 'enemy', but unfortunately the situtation is true, as a matter of fact, and that's irrelevant to whether it is used by some as an excuse for no-knock searches. Fact is, that it is just not very hard to make a computer system be "booby trapped" so that the "offending bits" vanish in a VERY big hurry. The speed with which computers could make incriminating evidence just "vanish" makes flushing amphetamines down the toilet seem crude by comparison. Turning this around, what would you suggest? Presuming that the LEOs continue to pursue various sorts of computer-based crimes [the question of the searches is orthogonal to the question of whether they're performed in the pursuit of brain-dead legislation, right?], will we be better or worse served if they better understand the realities of the craft? /Bernie\