posted on Sep, 11 2009 @ 02:25 PM
It is true that the FBI can easily recover deleted data from a Hard-drive that has been intentionally written over up to 13 times. However, that is
the limit of recovery, currently. Military Grade tools will allow you to render deleted files unreadable by FBI standards. Likewise, At Boot
Encryption is a good way to go as well, and if you use strong 4096-bit or greater Triple-Encryption then unless you provide your passphrase then no
one is going to be reading that data, not even the government!
I am not afraid to admit that I watch porn. My girl-friend watches it with me and truth be told, she seems to enjoy it far more than I do. However,
I've gotten into the practice of downloading the 18 U.S.C. 2257 Disclaimer with every video or picture I download and keep them in the same folder.
That way, I have plausible denial-ability. Part of the law requires the "knowing" transmission or possession of Child Pornography be proven to be
found guilty. If a video or picture had a 18 U.S.C. 2257 Disclaimer or Notice, then in good faith you were not "knowingly" commiting a crime. At
that point, the law can go after the Source for "knowingly" distributing as well as fraud.
As far as accidentally coming across Child Pornography, I'm not saying that it doesn't exist in the open on the Internet, but I highly doubt it.
Because it is something that is universally prosecuted with zeal by every nation on this planet, they are going to exist behind Authenticated Logins
or traded via encrypted and trusted networks. Within a day or two of something like that being posted in the open, it is going to be taken down and
everyone from the Host Provider to the person posting it is going to be either arrested or slapped with a Warrant and Subpoena.
I think a greater thing to fear, in regards to unknowingly or unwittingly possessing Child Pornography is those images that are hidden using
Steganography. Pictures could be hidden undetected as other innocuous images or embedded within video. That copy of Disney's Alice in Wonderland you
downloaded for your daughter might actually contain an extra 200 pictures of Kiddie Porn! That Flower Wallpaper that you downloaded for your wife's
computer might actually contain another picture encrypted within it that is illegal! I might be against the overly strict IP Laws in the United
States, but this is one reason alone that I obey IP Laws and only download content to my computer that is trusted or was made by myself or those that
I trust. It's not just malware, spyware and viruses that you have to worry about anymore, but encrypted Kiddie Porn too.
Thankfully, the FBI’s Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Team, in cooperation with the Innocent Images International Task Force, have done a
remarkable job at keeping most of us safe from unwittingly coming across such things, but one still can't be too careful.