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Showing Original Post only (View all)You Can Be Prosecuted for Clearing Your Browser History [View all]
http://www.thenation.com/article/208593/you-can-be-prosecuted-clearing-your-browser-historyIn 2010 David Kernell, a University of Tennessee student, was convicted under Sarbanes-Oxley after he deleted digital records that showed he had obtained access to Sarah Palins Yahoo e-mail account. Using publicly available information, Kernell answered security questions that allowed him to reset Palins Yahoo password to popcorn. He downloaded information from Palins account, including photographs, and posted the new password online. He then deleted digital information that may have made it easier for federal investigators to find him. Like Matanov, he cleared the cache on his Internet browser. He also uninstalled Firefox, ran a disk defragmentation program to reorganize and clean up his hard drive, and deleted a series of images that he had downloaded from the account. For entering Palins e-mail, he was eventually convicted of misdemeanor unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and felony destruction of records under Sarbanes-Oxley. In January 2012, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found that Kernells awareness of a potential investigation into his conduct was enough to uphold the felony charge.
At the time Kernell took steps to clean his computer, he does not appear to have known that there was any investigation into his conduct. Regardless, the government felt that they were entitled to that data, and the court agreed that Kernell was legally required to have preserved it.
Hanni Fakhoury, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the feds broad interpretation of Sarbanes-Oxley in the digital age is part of a wider trend: federal agents feeling entitled to digital data.
Fakhoury compares the broad application of Sarbanes-Oxley in the digital realm to the federal governments resistance to cellphone companies that want to sell encrypted phones that would prevent law enforcement from being able to access users data. When the new encrypted iPhone came out, FBI Director James Comey told reporters that he didnt understand why companies would market something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law.
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hacking is a crime? covering up by destroying evidence is a crime. gee who could figure that? nt
msongs
Jun 2015
#3
What kind of asinine crap is that? Years before you are ever accused of anything--
eridani
Jun 2015
#7
If you have actual awareness that you intentionally committed a crime with your computer, then yes.
prayin4rain
Jun 2015
#8
Are you saying you think he didn't know that hacking someone's computer is illegal?
WillowTree
Jun 2015
#53
He wasn't prosecuted for cyber-housekeeping; he was prosecuted for hacking and the deletion
Nuclear Unicorn
Jun 2015
#15
Need I reply that "people are corporations too" or do I have that backwards
LiberalArkie
Jun 2015
#37
Your post is an absolutely legitimate argument but the previously poster claiming it was
Nuclear Unicorn
Jun 2015
#45
When you delete files, they are just marked as deleted, they are still right there.
djean111
Jun 2015
#17
Oh, you are right, but it would sure be on my list of things to do if I was trying to wipe a disk.
djean111
Jun 2015
#20
Clearing browser history should be done daily and automatically, like with Firefox.
bemildred
Jun 2015
#34
he gets a federal felony for resetting a password on a yahoo account. Hacker news usa gets NOTHING
Sunlei
Jun 2015
#38
Required to preserve data that may incriminate you? Sounds like the 5th should apply here. Plus
Monk06
Jun 2015
#54
Coincidentally I was personally involved with Yahoo's efforts to catch this guy...
cascadiance
Jun 2015
#56