Advice/opinions please!!!!

Rufus · Post by **Rufus** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 10:16 am

Hi peeps, need some advice...

Last week some bastard somewhere in the world 'bombed' my laptop with viruses, the result being it has wrecked my hard drive. Data recovery software has retrieved some really important material I need but there is other work that is really, really important to me. As a result I have taken it to a fornesic specialist who uses police software to retrive data. Let's just say this software is very GOOD.

Here is my problem, I have quite a few photos of 'drug taking' in Amsterdam and at home and yes unfortunately I am in some of them

I have no doubt that these images will be found.

Here is my question, could I get into trouble????? I may be being paranoid but I don't know

Any thoughts...

Thanks

badbone · Post by **badbone** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 12:37 pm

if not larger quantities of cannabis can be seen in the pictures I do not think it will be a problem .... but can only speak from Danish experience

Bob2 · Post by **Bob2** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 12:52 pm

when it comes back worth backing up all your pics to a website i use http://www.humyo.com/ 10 gig storage which is free.. i see no problem about the pics

luvtick · Post by **luvtick** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 12:56 pm

my ex is a computer forensic specialist as well...has the police software too...he could give a shit what he finds...half the time he has recovered so much stuff, there is not enough time to look at everything...he looks at a sampling just to see if the entire file was recovered (or whatever "meep zorp" he has to do...). he is NOT a police officer...too much trouble to "tell" on you...

of course we are in the U.S....

now...since you're a hot chick...they may want to see if there are any naked pics of you...

roker · Post by **roker** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 12:58 pm

Another thing, NEVER keep valuable docs/pics etc in 'My Documents', or 'My Pictures'..put them in a folder preferably not on the system disk. I say this because they will be almost impossible to retrieve if a crash/virus attack happens because it's encrypted to your user account, user account gone? data gone......happened to me before...

Rufus · Post by **Rufus** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 01:42 pm

Thanks for the replies guys my stress levels have reduced somewhat!

@ Roker The quantities aren't too big from what I remember

@ Stuart cheers for that link will check that out and upload everything once I get sorted

@ luvtick thanks for compliment, but thankfully no fully naked pics

@ Roker ta for advice too - this has been a freakin nightmare so far, will back up elsewhere in future

No law enforcement at my door yet so hopefully things are good

Cheers again guys!

TRANCE · Post by **TRANCE** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 01:45 pm

I'll add.............

Change all your passwords too. A PC in a geeks hand can retrieve all your passwords to web sites you visit, not saying that they would care or even want to do this, but people should should often change passwords anyway to personal email. I heard a rumour that people who work for the BBC get told to change their email passwords on a weekly basis but that's extreme, I think.

CHELSEA_SMOKERS_SOCIETY · Sat 16th Oct 2010 01:48 pm

why would you be bothered about people seeing photos of you smoking in amsterdam?

i certanly am/would not be not worried

gixxer · Post by **gixxer** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 01:52 pm

CHELSEA_SMOKERS_SOCIETY wrote:why would you be bothered about people seeing photos of you smoking in amsterdam?

i certanly am/would not be not worried

because of her job

Rufus · Post by **Rufus** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 01:55 pm

gixxer wrote:
CHELSEA_SMOKERS_SOCIETY wrote:why would you be bothered about people seeing photos of you smoking in amsterdam?

i certanly am/would not be not worried
because of her job

Thanks gixxer, don't wish to post what I do but this could have SERIOUS repercussions for me and the person doing the forensics work is an ex cop

roker · Post by **roker** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 01:57 pm

Rufus wrote: the person doing the forensics work is an ex cop

They're not all bad, and most police couldn't give a shit about marijuana...

steven · Post by **steven** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 02:15 pm

I know how you feel about stuff like that in pictures or video format, a few yr ago I was given a top of the range nokia work phone and took pictures of my friend in his own grown jungle, 2days later my phone stopped working and I was told to send it head office for I.T to check it over.... Fuck that caused me to worry... Did I send it to them, did I fuck... I told them it was working again and I just bought some cheap phone and fired the sim card in that, let's say I had to keep the phone hidden at board meetings untill we got issued new ones the following year, and paid £20 to keep the old one... It's still in my drawer and doesn't work but I'm sure as fuck ain't sending it off to get repaired!
Oh and Rufus youve got me thinking... What do you do for a living? PM more than welcome

murphyscafe · Post by **murphyscafe** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 02:18 pm

TRANCE wrote: I heard a rumour that people who work for the BBC get told to change their email passwords on a weekly basis but that's extreme, I think.

- not true, and thats from one of there system admins! like most big companies its every month! ive NEVER worked anywhere its been that tight!!!

@ rufus - dont worry! i had the same issue and had to use an ex cop to sort it out, he said "god u must smoke alot!!" to which i replied, its medical n for my arthritis!! which i thought was a good answer! all he said was that if i had trouble sourcing any to give him a call!!!!

Rufus · Post by **Rufus** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 02:33 pm

Yes, all passwords have been changed our IT people nearly had a fit when they heard how severe this attack was and ALL my emails now have a forensic trace on them for a few weeks to check for spammers

I should add the virus downloaded qutie a bit of hardcore porn to my machine and I had to tell the guy this just in case he thinks I'm some kind of porn addict too!

Thanks Trance and murphyscafe

Steven I've pm'd ya

TRANCE · Post by **TRANCE** » Sat 16th Oct 2010 02:46 pm

murphyscafe wrote:not true, and thats from one of there system admins! like most big companies its every month! ive NEVER worked anywhere its been that tight!!!

Sorry mate, I'm afraid it was at a certain point a couple of years ago. This was under very extreme circumstances and was talked about on something like Newsnight, if I remember correctly. Something or somebody was hacked and people from the BBC were advised to change passwords weekly, albeit extreme, it instilled people to be aware of what was happening at the time. Personally, I change mine monthly and already stated doing it weekly is extreme, monthly is still over doing it, perhaps every quarter. This is not the issue here, more a heads-up feedback that a geek can lift off logins and passwords from a PC/laptop with ease, regardless if one has recently changed passwords or not.