Tech Experts Question Schoolteacher's Computer-Porn Conviction

[didymus]

tinyurl.com/2zzonj

Tech Experts Question Schoolteacher’s Computer-Porn Conviction

WINDHAM, Conn. — Until recently, [Julie Amero](javascript:siteSearch(‘Julie Amero’) lived the quiet life of a small-town substitute teacher in eastern Connecticut. She can’t believe that the events of one awful day at work could send her to prison for 40 years.
“I’m scared,” said Amero, a 40-year-old Windham resident with no prior criminal record. “I’m just beside myself for something I didn’t do.”

While prosecutors insist she is guilty, some experts believe that the lewd images were caused by unseen [spyware](javascript:siteSearch(‘spyware’) and adware programs, which critics call one of the top scourges of the Internet.
Amero, who claims to have little experience with computers, has become a cause celebre for technology experts around the country who say she is the victim of a miscarriage of justice that could happen to anyone.

Okay, I’ll believe it could happen – but why not remove the computer or keep it turned off until you’re sure the problem is fixed?

 

[JimG]

I’m not familiar with this case; but it’s certainly true that porn sites and even other websites often have features that prevent the user from clicking out of them–they’ll just keep popping back up.

The woman says she is not familiar with computers, and was told not to turn it off, that she went to get help from other teachers but nobody came. It could by a spyware problem. Didn’t it also say that the school had no firewall? Sounds like a lot of unanswered questions to me.

 

[BioCatholic]

OK, so being a little of a computer nerd, i definitely know that this most certainly DOES happen.

I once got an “infection” from this program called “SpyFalcon”. It is malware that infects your computer, and “warns” you that you have deadly spyware, and that the only solution is to buy “SpyFalcon” to remove it.

I am shocked that the expert she hired did not bring in a laptop, connect it to the internet with no firewall, and go to a webpage like the homepage of spyfalcon, and let the jury watch the destruction is wreaks in a matter of minutes.

I do not even connect my dual AMD64 opteron workstation to the internet directly. it has never seen the cable modem connection, or a webpage directly, EVER. There is just too many things out there to really destroy it, or any other computer.

 

[Lance]

If this is the full story I can not understand how this woman was convicted. The I.T. person at the school should at the very least be fired for not having a ‘firewall’. Even my home computer has one and at work we have a whole server dedicated to running our firewall. The woman is correct in that sometimes the only way to get out of these porn sites is to turn the computer off. I’ll bet that the school district was looking for a reason to get rid of her and this got out of control.