How did porn get on my hard drive?

I have a laptop at work and have never surfed porn sites with it. I do all my surfing on my home computer. There was a time a couple of years ago, before my company installed a firewall, when I would get porn pop-ups on my company laptop. I don't know why I received them, but I deleted them as soon as I saw them. The same thing happened with some emails that I had opened at work. I deleted any innapropiate emails that I received.

Recently, when the Information Services Dept. wanted to copy some large files from my laptop onto the company network, they found porn on the hard drive. I got fired instantly. I have never downloaded porn. How do I argue this? They won't even listen to me.

 

I have no idea what you could do, could you not sue for unlawful dismissal and demand that they prove it was you who download it? I'm not a lawyer, but it might be worth talking to one who specialises in IT related crime.

 

Blame it on the Devil and say that they're persecuting you for your religious beliefs. If you get lucky, dumbass Sean Hannity will bring you onto FoxedNews and lead a nation wide rally of nutbag Christians to restore your job!!!

 

Ha ha, will you have my babies?

 

Actually, there is some truth to this. They were the ones who didn't install a firewall, that is not your responsibility. Unless they can prove that you downloaded it on purpose, they don't have any grounds to fire you.

 

If you ever pirated software, you probably downloaded porn too. The warez sites are mostly funded by the porn industry.

I doubt arguing that you were pirating software will get your job back for you.

 

It could be possible that the pop-up give you a Trojan Horse. Or a Backdoor virus, meaning that some hacker can take control of your computer and do whatever they please with it, such as downloading porn.

 

Unfortanly when it comes down to it, the laptop you had, had porn on it, and in most cases thats plenty of evidence.

Is that bullshit? yeah...

Unless you can prove you didn't then your SOL. The law allows them to fire employees that abuse computer systems, and the porn on it is sufficient evidence, even if you didn't download it.

Sorry to say it that way, but it is true.

It's always worth fighting if your in the right.

 

Alernatively burn the company buildings down and look for another job.
Tom

 

Sad, we don't exist within a "just world"
Hope that you don't have much trouble in finding a good job.

Good Luck

 

Can they do that?

 

Time to learn more about your computer/s and learn to get rid of history and other data that you wish to hold private.

 

Sorry to hear that you got fired. But I agree with the others here. Especially the last one. It very easy coulda come from a backdoor virus or any freeware or shareware site you visited. Never....never.....delete sensitive material. There are several programs out there for free or a small fee to securely destroy data. Shredder is one. I hear it works good for Windows. Don't do Windows so I dunno personally. I use Wipe which is a command line program in Linux. I also clear my browsing history and personal data in my web browser at least once a week or oftener. I just recently used DBAN to nuke my hard drive. I was upgrading anyway. Delete only makes that section rewritable. Like putting a spitwad or piece of tape in the back holes on a old fashioned cassette tape. Delete just flags that section of the hard drive as free space. And removes the data from the working directory. Other programs actually "erase" the data. In Windows all deleted material is saved as a archived file deep in your system so you can restore it later if you know how. Delete is fine for like music files and other files and stuff that don't matter. But for a work computer that others may or may not be able to snoop into it.. such as you described or your boss having an access code or hacking in.....dude you were being silly and playing russian roullete.
I would totally zap any data I wouldn't want the whole office to see. I don't see as you got a legal leg to stand on. The law and the boss only cares that it was on Your personal computer. You are responsible for knowing what is on it. Course they are responsible for not having a proper firewall. I got a young man who is like a son to me that just did several months in jail for some porn that he did not download being on his computer. It happened to be of underage girls. He is still trying to get his record cleared. Be happy you just got fired.

Peace, Cricket

 

So sorry about your problem.

My best advice to you is to consult a lawyer, NOW! Laws vary widely from state to state, and you definitely need professional help here. Go for a conservative lawyer, not an ambulance chaser. You don't want to bring suit unless you can PROVE you were right, and even if you win, your odds of staying with the company after you defeat them in court are slim to none.

Would anyone in the company be willing to work with you at all? They possess the hard drive, and that is "prima fascia" evidence, so you are at an extreme disadvantage. If there is anyone in IT with whom you have any good-will left, you might be able to convince them to allow an independent audit of the machine.

Google the words "computer forensics" and try to find an top-quality, independent firm. Offer to pay them yourself, but your former employer would have to surrender the machine to the firm for an analysis. My guess is that they are unlikely to do this. They have the evidence, why would they open it up to controversy? Also, they would need to have not messed with the disk too much for the audit to do any good, and my guess is that they probably already have done a complete reformat. :/

If they have not destroyed the evidence, your best selling point would be to convince them that they might have a gaping hole in their security, and that an independent audit might help to prevent MASSIVE damage to the company.

My guess is that you probably were the victim of some malware, but I really don't know, and proving that is next to impossible unless you get the proper forensics analysis. Heck, one of your friendly co-workers could have inadvertently used your machine for a few minutes of recreation and left evidence.

You are in a tough situation. Good luck.

------

Edit: If you are SURE you are in the right, AND your lawyer thinks you should pursue an investigation, AND they haven't messed with the machine yet, AND it seems like they might let you buy an audit, THEN you might check with your local law enforcement for recommendations of forensics teams. They almost certainly have a computer crimes division, and they will have a ready team of trusted specialists that do this sort of work on a daily basis. (And NO, I don't do anything like this, but I have met folks who make their paycheck this way.)

Just some suggestions.

Good Luck!

 

One more thought occurred to me last night, although it is not a pleasant idea.

You say that you never used the work computer for non-work tasks, but (I hate to even suggest this...) is it possible that someone in your family or one of their "friends" might have used the computer for "educational" purposes? If they did, then you have two problems to deal with: first, you are almost certainly out of luck with the job, but second, you will have bigger things to work out within your family.

If someone did, PLEASE, do not hold blame and a grudge. The problems that blame could cause in your family would do more damage than a lost job at your age. It's easy to say and hard to do, but if the someone in your family helped the files get on you computer, you would need to find a way to get over it and get past it. Your family is worth far more than the job.

I feel for you. I'm VERY careful what I do with my work machine. I have known some great folks who lost their jobs under similar circumstances. I've also known some folks who got away with all kinds of stuff at work and never got caught. It ain't fair is it?