How can I learn about computer forensics?

[Ilovemyboys]

Some of you guys know my story. I just switched attorneys and he tried calling the top computer forensics analyst in the county and what do you know? He "can't talk to us about that case" because he's already been retained by my STBX's counsel.

So we are assuming that during my absences from the home, this guy came into my house and imaged my computers. Regarding the alleged affair? I don't care what they pull off my computer. But this is a huge invasion of my privacy, potential medical records, finances, etc...

- How is this legal? Especially with the new privacy laws out there?

- What do I need to do to mitigate identity theft? Now there is a imaged copy of my hard drives and accounts and passwords (via Lastpass.com)

I am not going to hide anything. I will own up to anything I have done. But what about my identity protection going forward?

[Fatheroffour]

Place a freeze on your credit report with the three major agencies.

What did the new attorney say about exercising your rights as a father?

[Ilovemyboys]

Hey FOF,

He is very "male rights" oriented. He said that it would be a good strategy but that we need to time it and be smart about it. He is big in to the "social conditioning" that we men go through and knows how to avoid it and how to work your way out of it.

We go to court tomorrow. He's asked a ton more question that the original attorney and he let me know that all my computer secrets may have been comprimised.

[Trevor]

How is this legal? Especially with the new privacy laws out there?

You mean the privacy freedoms afforded to citzens under the Patriot act?

[Ilovemyboys]

OK, so not that I plan o doing this again, but I am really upset that Mr. Security conscious IT guy here was able to have his computer security compromised.

I have a Mac and a Windows Laptop. Windows, yeah, I can even crack that myself, but how could he have gotten to my Mac?

[anonymous guest]

All computers are pretty dang easy to crack into once you have physical custody of them. Windows PC you just have to open the case and attach the PCs hard drive to your own computer and copy it. You can even boot off a CDROM and run a disk copy program if your PC is set to boot of CDROM.

Not sure of MACs. I assume the same thing is possible. Plus there are many CDROM or USB device programs you can boot a PC off of. When its booted that way you own the PC.

Your real question is what was on the PC and how can you prepare defense if needed?

[Southern.Putter]

- How is this legal? Especially with the new privacy laws out there?

- What do I need to do to mitigate identity theft? Now there is a imaged copy of my hard drives and accounts and passwords (via Lastpass.com)

I am not going to hide anything. I will own up to anything I have done. But what about my identity protection going forward?

Well, I know a little (a lot, actually) about digital forensics. How is it legal? The same law that lets you do anything you want to do with "family owned computers" also allows your STBX to do same.

Mitigate identity theft? Put a "fraud alert lock" on your credit records with all three credit bureaus. One by one, submit each of your credit cards as being "lost/stolen" and then shred the old card. The new cards should have new numbers, including the security code on the backs of the cards. Change all of your passwords. Be a little more paranoid. Etc.

Identity protection going forward? See above. Plus, anything that you want to have kept private should be stored somewhere offsite in fully encrypted files. You should only encrypt/decrypt those files on a computer that is not in your family home and that has the most robust security practices in place that you can come up with or else you'll be a sitting duck for guys like me.

If it's on your computer and it is not robustly-encrypted, you should consider it an open book. Good luck!

[kal]

I know this is a old post. But guys use truecrypt. It is free and can not be broken. Even our USA government can not get through. Maybe this will help someone.

[kingpb]

I don't know what state your in, but in FL the person doing the hacking just committed a felony.

Check your state laws. It usually falls under the same laws as recording phone calls.

In case anybody is thinking of putting a keylogger program on their wife's computer, beware, this is a sticky issue. Luckily I had a receipt that showed I bought the computer, and called it a family computer, otherwise I was close to being in big trouble.

[packetized]

- How is this legal? Especially with the new privacy laws out there?

- What do I need to do to mitigate identity theft? Now there is a imaged copy of my hard drives and accounts and passwords (via Lastpass.com)

I am not going to hide anything. I will own up to anything I have done. But what about my identity protection going forward?

Well, I know a little (a lot, actually) about digital forensics. How is it legal? The same law that lets you do anything you want to do with "family owned computers" also allows your STBX to do same.

Mitigate identity theft? Put a "fraud alert lock" on your credit records with all three credit bureaus. One by one, submit each of your credit cards as being "lost/stolen" and then shred the old card. The new cards should have new numbers, including the security code on the backs of the cards. Change all of your passwords. Be a little more paranoid. Etc.

Identity protection going forward? See above. Plus, anything that you want to have kept private should be stored somewhere offsite in fully encrypted files. You should only encrypt/decrypt those files on a computer that is not in your family home and that has the most robust security practices in place that you can come up with or else you'll be a sitting duck for guys like me.

If it's on your computer and it is not robustly-encrypted, you should consider it an open book. Good luck!

'

Just to piggyback off of this, think about what your STBX knows about you. Your mother's maiden name? This is commonly used to authenticate you over the phone/net with banks etc. You can change this with your bank anytime you want to whatever name you please. You probably can't change your social but you could ask for more authentication when anyone calls in on your account.