Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Wednesday April 15 2015, @10:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the surveillance-stick dept.

ArsTechnica reports that Matt Campbell, a North Little Rock attorney who represents police department whistleblowers supplied an external hard drive to the Fort Smith Police Department for them to copy emails and other evidence. When it was returned, he discovered that it contained three well-known trojan viruses:

According to court documents filed last week in the case, Campbell provided police officials with an external hard drive for them to load with e-mail and other data responding to his discovery request. When he got it back, he found something he didn't request. In a subfolder titled D:\Bales Court Order, a computer security consultant for Campbell allegedly found three well-known trojans, including:

  • Win32:Zbot-AVH[Trj], a password logger and backdoor
  • NSIS:Downloader-CC[Trj], a program that connects to attacker-controlled servers and downloads and installs additional programs, and
  • Two instances of Win32Cycbot-NF[Trj], a backdoor

All three trojans are usually easily detected by antivirus software. In an affidavit filed in the whistle-blower case, Campbell's security consultant said it's unlikely the files were copied to the hard drive by accident, given claims by Fort Smith police that department systems ran real-time AV protection.

"Additionally, the placement of these trojans, all in the same sub-folder and not in the root directory, means that [t]he trojans were not already on the external hard drive that was sent to Mr. Campbell, and were more likely placed in that folder intentionally with the goal of taking command of Mr. Campbell's computer while also stealing passwords to his accounts."

Will the Fort Smith Police Department be held accountable? Place your bets...

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @11:31AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @11:31AM (#170900)

    I think this may actually turn around and hurt the cops. , nothing to severe I'm sure, and it's not like I give it a high chance of actually happening. But I'm more positive about this case then the rest of the commenters here appear to be.
    The reason is not that they did this particular act, but that they did it against a lawyer, and the judge is also a lawyer who will feel more sympathy for the lawyer than for the cops.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @10:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @10:22PM (#171210)

    Bwahaha, Arkansas has elected judges. The chief requirement there is raising the most money and being tough on crime. In fact, many candidates in election states have said that being a lawyer is actually a liability for the job. So in actuality, it is a complete toss up. You could get a lawyer, a former LEO or some random guy who ran because no one else did to fill that vacancy.