Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: Evidence (was Re: Musing on Constitutionality)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 03:35:56 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Sep14.033556.19408@looking.on.ca>
References: <11621@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <36981@ut-emx> <3998@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> <JMC.90Sep12150942@Gang-of-Four.usenet>

I have always been amused at reading how the goons confiscate printers
when they move in.  How silly!  Yet it got me thinking...

If I were a computer criminal, I might just create a very special printer
with a bank of non-volitile storage in it.  Or, for that matter, just buy
one of the modern printers you can get these days with 4 megs ram, etc.

I would use that storage, normally, to keep all the stolen access codes,
calling card numbers, and other incriminating data.   Pretty easy, with the
high speed link I have to my printer, to fetch the codes from it.

(I would also have the machine erase stuff if disconnected improperly,
keeping backups somewhere far away.)

Or I could hide this info in little hidden places in all kinds of
semi-smart or smart peripherals -- including some off the shelf.

So if we fight (correctly) to stop them from confiscating everything, this
may drive the real criminals to such tricks, which may lead to grander
confiscation.  I point this out -- I don't know if there's an answer.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
