Whoa
I remember a day when something like this would have made a very large, if not banner headline.
How long do you think for-q-clinton will keep beating this dead horse, hoping it will gallop to the finish line?
However, my point about the ease of sneaking compromising and incriminating documents onto ALL of our computers stands. I thank him for that, because had he not brought my attention to thinking about it, I would not have realized how easy it is for anything to be placed in our computers for later revelation by someone who KNOWS where to look, when we haven't a clue it's there! Steganography allows ANYTHING to be hidden inside the most innocent of graphics and all they have to do is claim that WE were the ones hiding it there! We would be the ones then placed in the unenviable position of proving our innocence!
Many years ago, one of my professional clients called me because his receptionist's computer (a Windows XP machine) had slowed to a dead crawl. It literally took 45 minutes to boot to a usable state and then it was 20-40 seconds between clicking and the click taking effect. I came and looked at it and discovered it had been hijacked as a "kiddieporn" server!!!!
Had he taken it into normal computer repair shop, he would most likely probably have been hauled in by the police, trying to explain where all that stuff came from. because the staff at one of those places would have called the cops. I promptly deleted it. . . restored his system and got it running normally. Ran up-to-date anti-virus and anti-Trojan ware, yet, 15 minutes later, it was ALL back, taking over the computer again! It was one of the first Root Kit malware. I had to wipe the hard drive to a low level format and re-install everything to get rid of the damn thing. That DID come in on an innocuous email that was not even opened by anyone at the office!
I found another infected Windows PC–recognized it instantly–a couple of weeks later in, shall we say, a very sensitive location that shall go forever nameless, whose removed hard drive wound up in even a more sensitive location under seal with my sealed, sworn statement of what was on it. . . and which I will say no more about!
The exact same thing happened two months earlier to a businessman in England. . . but he made the major mistake of taking it to a big-name shop for repair. 100,000 pounds later, minus his business, his wife, his family, his house, his cars, and his reputation, a forensic computer specialist finally testified he had nothing to do with it and that it came in on a malicious email!. The Crown Court apologized for its error.
This malicious document thing is insidious for us.