Fake: cops obeying the law and following due process? Really?
Gay: Anon clearly took “be gay, do crimes” seriously… too bad he didn’t take his opsec as seriously…
Short answer, do NOT destroy the computer or flee. That is textbook obstruction and will turn a sketchy visit into a criminal case overnight. You were right to refuse a search without a warrant, keep doing that, but destroying evidence or running wiping tools is a dumb panic move.
Get a lawyer immediately, even a public defender if money is tight. Record everything from the visit now, names, badge numbers, what they said, time stamps, take photos of any paperwork or footprints. Do not log into accounts, do not run cleanup software, and if possible disconnect the machine from the internet and power it down until your lawyer tells you what to do. Turning it off is different from erasing stuff.
If the cops come back with a warrant, comply on your lawyer's advice. If you're honestly worried the allegation involves really serious crimes, get counsel fast, because those carry mandatory procedures and you need someone who knows how to handle evidence and interviews. And for the future, yes encrypt your drives and keep recovery keys offline, but that's after you sort this with legal help.
IANAL, but I think it's only a crime if it's destroyed after a warrant has been issued.
If the cops actually had anything real on him, they could get the warrant over the phone while stalling you at the door, or even storm your place and get it retroactively.
And even if they don't get it, no cop can get in trouble for the raid if they "believe" you might destroy evidence, and anything they find can still be used in court.
It completely invalidates your 4th amendment rights but congress felt this was needed to protect you against "terrorists" 25 years ago.
Anon shouldn't have fucked with the CSAM
And here's where we introduce you to this magical term called full disk encryption!
And if you use BitLocker, do NOT backup your recovery key to the cloud!
https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-reportedly-turned-over-bitlocker-encryption-keys-to-the-fbi-2000713550
Print out out, give it to a friend, don't mention it via electronic means (email, text, Snapchat, YouTube, and so on...)
Even better is to memorize it.
This person should also turn off their computer and remove the RAM so it's zeroed out if it gets siezed.
If it can be proven you did that, that's gonna look real bad in court.
You can get in legal trouble for turning off your PC?
Full disk encryption doesn't help much if the pc is running anyway since the key will be in memory
How will they carry the running pc if it’s not a laptop?
They use forensic tools to clone the RAM before moving it. Probably depends on exploits so whether it will work may depend on your OS, but they have access to the hardware so there are a lot of possibilities.
Is this actually practically achievable or mostly theoretical in a lab? Is it confirmed that the cops have actually managed to do this?
At least in Germany, I would be surprised if the cops could point to the RAM inside a computer. They will not open it before they take it with them.
They have a battery attached to flat wires. When you give a couple millimeters of room from the plug, they insert the flat wires and the computer will be powered from the battery.
If the computer is logged in, they have a USB device that mimics a mouse. It makes the mouse pointer move back and forth to prevent it from going to sleep or the screen saver.
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
