What if child porn is encountered during research?

[mick at pauldotcom.com (Michael Douglas)]

Actually upon reflection, I'm changing my story somewhat.  You *need*
to turn it in & you need to see a lawyer too. (NOT IN THAT ORDER!)

This is the best I can remember the quote from Special Agent Rob White
(damn skilled white hat & an all around nice guy)
"This data is contraband. You cannot just destroy it and walk away.
Imagine finding a kilo of coke at work. Very few would simply flush it
down the toilet and pretend nothing ever happened. Same with this data
(we were talking about kiddie porn and other data which is simply
illegal) you have to handle it correctly, you have to report it"

I'd still talk with a lawyer first if for nothing else, it will help
you understand what rights *you* have and what the law enforcement
group you turn the data (again I really think you should) is and is
not permitted to do.

Also, you need to be aware that things have shifted with regard to how
child porn is handled by law enforcement.  It has been my unfortunate
experience that I've had to deal with this multiple times in my
career.  What's sad, is that it seems all police forces have now dealt
with this issue enough that they have good policies and procedures and
are now able to handle things in a highly professional manner.  so the
chances of them saying things like "oh lookie here! and how come you
have this sonny?" are almost nil.

Best of luck!
- Mick




On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 6:54 AM, Jack Daniel<jackadaniel at gmail.com> wrote:
> Echoing Mick's answers- talk to a lawyer, and your local Infragard is
> probably a good resource. ?Do not make assumptions as to what would or
> would not be of value to law enforcement, allow the investigators to
> make those decisions.
>
> I am not a lawyer...but I would stop and document what I had done and
> what I thought I had found as soon as I discovered something
> potentially ugly and stop my investigation- then make contact with
> legal and/or law enforcement before proceeding.
>
> Jack
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:00 AM, Michael Douglas <mick at pauldotcom.com> wrote:
> > You *need* to consult a lawyer.
> >
> > Also it helps if you can reach out to your local law enforcement
> > community *before* you get in such a situation. ?The local InfraGard
> > chapter is pretty good where I'm at so I was able to get to know the
> > agents who covered these cases.
> >
> > Excellent question, but I don't think there's a stock answer...
> >
> > - Mick
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 9:49 PM, Adrian Crenshaw<irongeek at irongeek.com> wrote:
> > > While doing research on anonymizing networks, what is the best policy to
> > > follow concerning inadvertently captured contraband (child porn, copyright
> > > infringing files, etc.)? In the case of child porn, the authorities should
> > > be notified under normal circumstances, but with anonymizing networks the
> > > origin of the files is hard if not impossible to determine. Would it be
> > > correct to just wipe the data after research on the network is done?? As I
> > > understand it, even having it on your hard drive because of peripherally
> > > relevant research would be a crime.
> > >
> > > Adrian
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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