After spending over a year studying cases and hearing stories of incarcerated individuals, a number of things become apparent. First, to get this out of the way, there’s the fact that nobody is guilty, but in a prison setting, that mentality is expected. Still, with the overwhelming number of stories that exist, there is bound to be some truth to those who claim to be falsely accused.
After pouring over a large number of cases, there are a number of areas where investigators fall short. Several individuals have ongoing appeals because of these flaws. Sadly, many defense attorneys simply don’t know enough about computer forensics to know what to look for. This list will hopefully provide a starting point to at least address some of these lapses in investigations.
These stories are based on interviews and court documents and these types of stories have been repeated multiple times by different people unknown to one another.
Cache Files: One of the most common complaints is that, in many cases, defence does not fully analyze cache files. There are times that images can be found automatically downloaded to a users computer without their knowledge. Most reputable sites won’t have these issues, however, there are innocent looking sites that will. These sites can include discussion forums, adult sites, file sharing sites, game “cheat” sites, and so on. Many defense lawyers simply don’t know how cache works and cant defend against it, forcing the accused to accept a plea deal.
“P2P” file sharing sites, “Torrent” sites, music sites, and movie sharing sites: These are generally sites that have files available for download, many hosted by other users. Some are free, while others are fee based. Users click and download a file based off of a user added description which is saved to their computer. The files are extracted to where the user has access to them. These sites can portray themselves as innocent, allowing people to download the latest movie or music releases. Instead, users have found that they have inadvertantly downloaded illegal materials. These files can even be installed in different directories, ones that the user isn’t even aware of.
Document collaboration apps and sites: Most common of these is Google Drive and Dropbox, but many others exist. Some of these are pre-installed, such as with Microsoft, while others are more user specific, such as Evernote. These sites allow users to work together on different projects together in real time. This is usually done by carving out space on each users computer to store the base file, then as the files are modified in the cloud, they are overwritten locally. Many times, users are unaware of what files are even stored on their computer. With multi-user projects involving a large number of users and files, this can become a major issue, especially when one user decides to host nefarious files in the drive.
AI generated images: New to the scene are artificially generated images and AI-powered personal assistants. Most recently, X’s AI bot was found generating deepfakes and fabricating illegal photos, which were then automatically downloaded to users computers through cache or other methods.
These are some of the most common ways that people have been falsely accused. Files are clearly found, however, the user has had no knowledge of them. Most computer users are generally oblivious to the dangers that exist. While it is safer than it has ever been, there are still many areas of the web that are still like the wild wild west.
The best advice, be aware, and if you find yourself being falsely accused, make sure to hire a defense attorney who is well-versed in how computers and cell phones work.
