Cop's 1st Amendment retaliation claim fails; court does hold emails to news outlets were speech as citizen

In Smith v. County of Suffolk & Richard Dormer, CV 10-1397 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 27, 2013), a federal district court held that a police officer's emails to outside news entities, which resulted (in part) in disciplinary actions against him, could not sustain a 1st Amendent retaliation claim under 42 U.S.C. 1983, the 1st Amendment itself, and Article 1, Section 8 of the New York Constitution. The "plaintiff claim[ed] he was retaliated against for his use of a police computer 'to speak his mind and express his opinion to members of the news media' about...

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Ohio appellate court finds that failure to make motion to suppress over GPS search was ineffective assistance

In State v. Allen, 2013 Ohio 434 (Ohio Ct. App 2013), the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed and remanded  a conviction after trial counsel failed to make a motion to suppress evidence derived from the use of a GPS device on the defendant's car.  The GPS device was used for a period of two days. At trial, defense counsel failed to make a motion to suppress, and the defendant appealed arguing ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding that "trial counsel had an obligation to raise the GPS issue in a motion to suppress all...

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US cybersecurity firm releases report on Chinese army hacks of American companies

Mandiant, a United States cybersecurity firm, released a report on Tuesday detailing its findings of what it believes to be a series of hacks conducted by the Chinese army. They believe they have detected the hacks of "141 companies spanning 20 major industries." Here's an except from the executive summary: The activity we have directly observed likely represents only a small fraction of the cyber espionage that APT1 has conducted. Though our visibility of APT1’s activities is incomplete, we have analyzed the group’s intrusions against nearly...

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Court disallows cell phone search that occurred six hours after arrest

Timing they say is everything, even when it comes to warrantless searches. A federal district court echoed similar sentiments when it held that a warrantless search of a defendant’s cell phone six hours after arrest was unconstitutional.  In U.S. v. Dimarco, U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16279 (S.D.N.Y. 2013), the court granted the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence obtained from the warrantless search of his cell phone because of the timing of the search and the insufficient justifications offered by the officer who conducted the search.  The...

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Fifth Circuit reverses in CP case due to lack of evidence showing policy for inventory searches

In United States v. Vernon, No. 12-60105 (5th Cir. 2013), the Fifth Circuit reversed a motion to suppress in a child pornography case over an argument that an inventory search to find the defendant's computer was conducted improperly. The defendant was arrested at a Mississippi casino by the United States Marshals Service. He refused to consent to a search of his vehicle, and "upon inquiry, the marshals learned that the casino officials wanted the car removed." I want to stop the story here to explain the significance of that last...

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Tidbits: Executive Order on Cybersecurity; CISPA redux; NPR discussion of "hacking back"

President Obama's Executive Order on Cybersecurity President Obama, in his SOTU speech last night, explicitly mentioned cybersecurity and the need for more action on protecting the nation on that front (through information sharing, etc.). The President's Executive Order can be found here: Executive Order -- Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. The Presidential Policy Directive associated with the Executive Order (PPD-21) can be found here: PRESIDENTIAL POLICY DIRECTIVE/PPD-21. I think it is too early to tell the impact that...

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10th circuit rules that intent not required to trigger distribution sentence enhancement when a peer-to-peer system is used in child pornography case

The 10th circuit held that using a peer-to-peer network file-sharing program in downloading child pornography is sufficient to trigger the application of a distribution sentence enhancement. In U.S. v. Ray, No. 11-3383 (10th Cir. 2013), the court held that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual does not require the government to prove that child pornography was actually transferred or that the defendant had intent to distribute the pornography in order for the distribution sentence enhancement to apply. The defendant pled guilty to receiving...

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DHS Civil Liberties office: Reasonable suspicion not required for search of electronic devices at border

The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released an assessment concerning border searches of electronic devices which argues that no constitutional rights are violated by such searches with or without reasonable suspicion. When first announced that such an assessment would be made, the report was ordered for completion in late 2009. The Fourth Amendment, which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures," has long been interpreted to not carry the same weight at our nation's...

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CSU San Marcos student uses keylogger to gain credentials & vote for himself in online election

I recently posted this on Twitter, and it is very interesting. Tweets w/ links are below: Student Candidate Arrested, Charged With Fraud. http://bit.ly/XtNMLm . Faked votes for student body pres. w/ info from keylogger.#cybercrime Complaint: keylogger case @ CSU San Marcos. http://bit.ly/12a9JSD . Voted online 4 himself & friends, nabbed by FBI #infosec#cybercrime #CFAA CSU-SM case - charged w/ wire fraud, access fraud, and CFAA violations. Used keylogger for username/pass of other students.#cybercr...

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CA appellate court allows warrantless use of speed/braking records from car's airbag module (SDM)

In another first impression case, a California appellate court ruled that an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the data recorded by a car's sensing diagnostic module (SDM), which is part of the airbag system. Therefore, the court upheld the police's actions to retrieve that information from a car that was lawfully impounded after an accident. The case is People v. Diaz, __ Cal. App. Ct. __ (Feb 6, 2013), and a copy of the opinion can be found: here. The "main function of the SDM is to deploy the air bags. The SDM has the secondary...

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Court holds reasonably logical assumption insufficient to apply inevitable discovery rule

In a profession where reasonably logical leaps are normative, the prosecution in North Carolina was asked to push such prescriptions.  In State v. Wells, 2013 N.C. App. Lexis 121, the appellate court held that a mere logical assumption that evidence would have eventually been discovered is insufficient to trigger an exception to the exclusionary rule for evidence derived from an unconstitutional search or seizure.   The defendant was convicted for soliciting a child by a computer and attempted indecent liberties with a child. During...

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Your Password is Obsolete. Now What?

Be sure to check out this infographic about passwords which describes the hack of Wired writer Mat Honan, explains how hackers are able to get a person's data, discusses alternatives to passwords, and provides password advice. It's really worth a few minutes of your time. Here's the introduction: Some say 2012 may have been the year the password broke. With password leaks and dumps becoming common occurrences our lives are simply...

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Breaking: WI Sup Ct upholds GPS tracking, dissent alleges 4th Amendment "trespass" occured

State v. Brereton has been released, today. A PDF of the decision can be found: here. I will have analysis up in a bit, but here is some pertinent text from the majority's holding: First, we conclude that the seizure of Brereton's vehicle was supported by probable cause that the vehicle was, or contained, evidence of a crime, and was therefore permissible under the Fourth Amendment.  The seizure was supported by witnesses' reports that a car matching the make, model, and license plate number of that particular vehicle had been seen...

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Federal District Court finds reasonable expectation of privacy in packages mailed with fake recipient and sender

Confronted with an issue of first impression, a federal district court held that the sender of packages labeled with fictitious sender and recipient information retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of those packages. The case is United States v. Williams, ___ F. Supp. 3d ___ (W.D. Tenn Dec. 6, 2012). The court's decision was based primarily on the Seventh Circuit's opinion in United States v. Pitts, 322 F.3d 449 (7th Cir. 2003), since there was no controlling precedent from the Sixth Circuit. The facts of the case are quite...

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Australian man to be sentenced for drug activities on Silk Road

According to Australian newspaper The Age, an Melbourne man has pleaded guilty to drug crimes after being caught purchasing and selling drugs including cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamine on the black market website Silk Road. The website is hidden behind the Tor network and is a marketplace for nearly all types of contraband. According to Wikipedia, the site's monthly sales are estimated at about $1.2 million. Sales are conducted using Bitcoin, an online currency providing anonymity to transactions. The defendant began using the site due to financial...

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