The Need for a Computer Crime Innocence Project

Presented at The Next HOPE (2010), July 18, 2010, 9:30 a.m. (60 minutes)

High profile computer forensic cases like those of Julie Amero and Michael Fiola, where innocent people were falsely charged with downloading illegal files, illustrate the need for professional forensic standards for determining whether a user, or malware infecting their computer, downloaded suspect files. Joe Cicero discusses his experiences dealing with his college administration, attorneys, and the EFF over the problematic research issues that willful installation of malware brings about. He will discuss his project outline and testing protocols and procedure, detailing why certain decisions were made. Audience feedback will be requested on how to create an innocence project designed specifically for computer crime cases. Tech-savvy criminal defense attorney Alex Muentz and EFF’s Seth Schoen will round out the panel with their insights.


Presenters:

  • Seth Schoen
    Seth Schoen is a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He has worked at EFF for eight years, helping other technologists to understand the civil liberties implications of their work, the EFF staff to better understand the underlying technology related to EFF's legal work, and the public to understand what the technology products they use really do. He helped create the LNX-BBC live CD and has researched phenomena including laser printer forensic tracking codes, ISP packet spoofing, and key recovery from computer RAM after a computer has been turned off. He is secretary of the Noisebridge hackerspace.
  • Alex Muentz
    Alex Muentz is a geek and a lawyer. When he's not trying to keep his clients out of trouble, he teaches about the collision of law and technology and tries to be useful to his fellow geeks.
  • Joe Cicero
    Joe Cicero is currently a network specialist instructor for Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and a columnist for the Shawano Leader. He specializes in teaching Linux, network security, and computer forensics courses. Joe has had positions covering every aspect of computers including help desk support, technician, programmer, network administrator, directory of technology, computer security and incident response team member, defense forensic examiner, and, of course, instructor.

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