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[CYBERIA] The Trojan did it - Possession of child pornog

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 02:20:13 -0400 Send reply to: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Sean Donelan <sean@DONELAN.COM> Subject: [CYBERIA] The Trojan did it - Possession of child pornography To: CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

Is the owner of a computer responsible for anything found on his computer, and responsible for keeping the computer secure?

There are over 100,000 computer trojans on the Internet, and more compromised computers are added every day. Most of the Trojans are used in Distributed Denial of Service attacks, but this is the first I've heard of a trojan being used to plant evidence on a person's computer.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9023 A MAN ACCUSED of having pornographic pictures of children on his PC was acquitted yesterday after a court heard that his machine was infected with a Trojan on his PC which probably auto-downloaded the images. The acquittal followed expert testimony that said an examination of the hard drive belonging to Karl Schofield was infected with the Trojan and that was responsible for the downloads, an argument accepted by the prosecution service in Reading, in the UK.

Mr Schofield had denied making indecent images and claimed the Trojan might have infected his PC either through email or from pop up adverts. The expert testified that the Trojan arrived on Mr Schofield's system the day before the images appeared. In the run up to the case, according to the Reading Evening Post, Mr Schofield suffered vigilante attacks and had to first hide in his home then move away to avoid continued attacks.

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