Unsolicited downloads

[jupiter]

In an account I heard yesterday of a prosecution for illegal content on a home computer, it was suggested that there are circumstances in which content from a website can continue to download after the site has been exited.

In this case, the defence maintained, the accused had visited a general, open, non-porn site on which users can post content. He had seen one illegal image and exited the site - subsequently a dozen or so illegal images were found in the temp files on the computer, which the accused said he had never seen. The defence maintained that images continued to be downloaded without the users knowledge

Setting aside all the issues about illegal content, my query is whether this explanation is technically feasible.  If so it presents a worrying scenario!

[Rik]

I think there are various ways in which this could happen, Jupiter, so yes it is worrying.

[Azazel]

the moral of the story set your browser to clear chache automatically when exiting!

But indeed worrying to say the least, these days of the nanny state and more and more computer monitoring and the more and more sophisticated ways of criminals operating including using technology on websites and by deliberate attacks and the fact that the law is so far behind even understanding the extent of what can and cant be done it does worry me at least!

[jupiter]

the moral of the story set your browser to clear chache automatically when exiting!

Which the unintending user would probably not bother doing I suppose.  But in any case, I assume that would only unindex the deleted cache items, rather than erase them from the disk?

This was a strange case because it was claimed that the accused had visited the site only twice - and, as I said, not a porn site at all.  Bearing in mind the millions of hits across the internet, I wonder if these images were planted - a kind of honey trap, then all ips that accessed them were logged.

Nor was this one of those cases where people used a credit card to pay for content.  It is the first case I have heard about in which what could have been 'accidental' browsing led to a conviction, and I just wonder where we are going with all this.

[Gary]

Clearing your cache is not enough though as the the information is still contained on your machine in .dat files, you really need a file shredder to make sure upon reboot everything has been cleaned and overwritten more than just once, same goes for banking history etc, if someone looks in your drive they will find it if they want to.

[Simon]

Am I correct in thinking .dat files are only applicable to IE though?

[Rik]

Firefox has its own equivalent, though.

[Simon]

Stored where?  Does erasing Cache files with a secure file remover not do the trick?

[Gary]

Something like Ccleaner should in theory Simon, also Firefox has a prefetch feature so it already downloads in the background on google the first few pages cookies so you have fast access to them, not great if its something dodgy, I have network prefetch set to off in firefox network.prefetch-next set to false in about:config

[Rik]

Stored where?  Does erasing Cache files with a secure file remover not do the trick?

It should do. They're stored (XP) in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<alpha-numeric name>.default\Cache.

[Simon]

That only removes the Cache files, Gary, which I thought was all that was required.  Rik seems to be saying there's something else, similar to IE's .dat store.

[Rik]

Those are the cache files, Simon.

[Simon]

That's OK then, that's what I thought.  One easy way to remove these is by erasing the Cache folder in the Firefox profile.

[Gary]

The information will still be on your hard drive unless that area is wiped over a few times though Simon so someone could read it if they wanted, the network prefetch actually caches the first few pages on sites like google, not the cookies I was half asleep  so its good to kill

[Ted]

There's a program called BC Wipe that i've used in windows. You can delete and wipe files on the fly and also wipe all the free space on your drive which will wipe any already deleted files or data.

[Gary]

There's a program called BC Wipe that i've used in windows. You can delete and wipe files on the fly and also wipe all the free space on your drive which will wipe any already deleted files or data.

That's good to know Ted, cheers for the heads up

[Rik]

I've been using Window Washer from Webroot for the same purposes. It's not free, though it was to me.

[Simon]

I use Tracks Eraser occasionally, and Eraser for on demand secure file deletion, which can overwrite files 35 times.

[Ann]

Of course, the authorities would have to be suspicious in order to bother to look at your computer.  They don't just check everyone's computers.  I wonder why they thought to look at this guy's computer in the first place.  

If it was the case talked about on the television programme last night, then I can't say he totally convinced me.  

[Rik]

You're right, of course, Ann. I must have had a couple of dozen computers over the years and have never had one examined by any authority. I presume there were reasons why this particular person was looked at.

[Ted]

Of course, the authorities would have to be suspicious in order to bother to look at your computer.  They don't just check everyone's computers.  I wonder why they thought to look at this guy's computer in the first place. 

If it was the case talked about on the television programme last night, then I can't say he totally convinced me. 

people get caught when they take it in for repair and such, gary glitter for example.

[Gary]

I just like mine wiped clean at the end of each day so there is no personal information lying about for personal security really

[Rik]

Good point, Ted - though you wonder how things come to light in a routine repair. Clearly, some repairers are having a good look around.

[Gary]

I had a pc taken in for repair and it came back with itunes on it, and it had been used at half eight at night on a Saturday to download music, this was a Sony pc at a Sony repair centre!! I got a new one out of them for that little shenanigan

[Rik]

A bit like having your car serviced and it comes back with a couple of hundred miles on the clock.