A while back (before I started this blog) there was a rather frightening story…
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/boston-college-prompt-commands-are-suspicious
A computer science student at Boston College was arrested. His room mate accused the student of “hacking” into the school’s computer systems and changing other students’ grades as well as ending out e-mails purporting the room mate was gay. But the reasoning on the warrant from the police is what was the scariest. The warrant for his arrest stated…
uses two different operating systems to hide his illegal activities. One is the regular B. C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.
So the evidence the police has was the fact the student was dual booting Windows and Linux (Linux is specifically mentioned later in the EFF article). Apparently Linux was being used to hide the student’s illegal activities. I mean we all know anything run via a command prompt is an operating system for only the most serious business of the serious business hackers.
Lord knows I could easily be arrested under such justification. Thankfully the Massachusets Supreme Court threw the case out…
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/06/update_on_compu.html
It’s nice to see some common sense dealing with potential computer crime still exists. Normally simply accusing somebody is a “hacker” is enough to get a court case. Couple that with a lawyer who can spew enough technical jargon, no matter how incorrect the jargon is used, and it is enough to convict the suspect.