Boston (MA) – A former Massachusetts state worker has been vindicated of child pornography charges after investigators said a computer virus was responsible for automatically downloading dozens of illegal pictures.  Michael Fiola, formerly of the Department of Industrial Accidents, was fired in 2007 after department IT staff found child porn on his work laptop.  Later in the year, he was charged with possession of child pornography.

Back in November 2006, Fiola was issued a laptop with Windows XP SP2 installed.  The laptop had the typical anti-virus software installed, but Tami Loehrs, a computer forensic investigator hired by the defense, said the laptop was improperly configured.  This prevented virus definition updates from installing which eventually led to the laptop’s infection.

Apparently a shoddy laptop setup was the main catalyst to this infection.  The laptop had been used by another employee and according to Loehrs, the laptop name was simply changed when it was given to Fiola.  This caused the laptop to stop receiving virus and software updates via the department’s update server.

According to Loehrs, a computer virus caused the laptop to scan approximately 40 sites every minute and riddled the browser’s cache file with hundreds of images.  Prosecution investigators concurred with Loehrs and all charges were dropped.

Loehrs told the Boston Herald that the case was, “one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen.”  She referred to the resulting witch hunt against Fiola after the indecent images were discovered.  The Department of Industrial Accidents so far hasn’t apologized to Fiola.

Good

Jun 17, 2008 20:08     

Good, time to sue the government for being jackasses. I'm glad they were in such a rush to fire him, charge him with a crime then ruin his reputation.
fox report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +17

Yeh right... haha

Jun 17, 2008 20:27     

Suuure. The virus did it. Ill be sure to remember THAT ONE when some one finds my pr0n.
VILLAIN_xx report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -16

For Fiola this was...

Jun 17, 2008 20:30     

For Fiola this was an accident of industrial proportions! Did it take this long to get to this conclusion or is this just the consequence of previous findings? I can't imagine what this guy must have gone through...
[TR] report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +11

Ugh. USE A MAC! :)...

Jun 17, 2008 21:11     

Ugh. USE A MAC! :)
bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -36

COOL!

Jun 17, 2008 22:46     

A virus that gives you free porn? I want that! I thought most web sites charged you for porn. How about one that puts free money into my paypal account, too? And how about one that automatically votes for republicans? Oh wait, they already have that. I can say "I didn't vote for bush, a virus did".
UHUH report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +11

Use a mac? Use your brain.

Jun 18, 2008 01:14     

Try walking into work some day and demanding they issue you a mac instead of a PC. Then walk out the door with your pink slip.
Xira report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +16

Malformed Boston Herald link to article

Jun 18, 2008 09:40     

The link to the original Boston Herald article needs to be fixed. It's prefixed with: http://www.tgdaily.com/ The correct link is: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1101286&srvc=home&position=rated
Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

but what if....

Jun 18, 2008 11:01     

Mac is not the answer - there are as many virus's (per PC) in Mac's as Windows - its just that most MAC users are a bit more literate and they are much fewer. I am a tech and deal regularly with people that just don't have a clue - this is an extreme case (since I have never seen a virus/spyware that targeted child porn - hence some question to the validity of the story) but if it is true then there are a lot more questions that need answering..like why was the computer never scanned when plugged into the work network? why was auto updates turned off? antivirus disabled is normal for most virus's. This does smell fishy but if its true I feel for the computer illiterate fool.

a tech report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

mac?

Jun 18, 2008 11:31     

yea, right. which work place uses macs? one in a hundred? SAP and Oracle 11i don't work on macs...so you have to work outside the fortune 500 companies. A lot of corporate softwares simply won't work in mac... use a mac...only if you are in a graphic or design company or college. Grow up kid...your mac skill you got in college ain't going to be useful in real world. As for this guy...it's probably not a "virus"... probably some spyware that does adult site pop ups etc. As for government IT...they are famous for their low skill and lazyness... or else if you are good, why would you got for a 40K job when you can get 80K in private sector doing the same thing? because they want to lay back.... instead of a reflesh of a computer harddrive from a good mirror image..they just change the username and email setting... and didn't even do any clean up or virus scan first. That guy should sue for money and lost wages and suffering and stuff like that and make them fire the IT person that was handeling the laptop.

wow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

@Mac users...

Jun 18, 2008 13:20     

Of course the mac kiddies had to comment about "thats why I use a mac". Give me a break, it's already been proven that a mac is not a secure as the latest window's systems. The only reason why window's is hit is because it's used by 70 % of the population. A virus maker isn't going to bother creating a virus for something that isn't used. You Mac kiddies make me laugh.
JackCrackerMan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

ok...

Jun 19, 2008 15:57     

Ugh. USE A Linux Box! :) n00b sorry... couldn't resist.
Jorge report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

none

Jun 20, 2008 00:36     

That's possible. One morning we turned on our computer and discovered a bunch of pornographic pictures that neither I nor my wife had ever seen before. Since we both are in our seventies, neither of us had much interest in this and we tried to get rid of it.You could not eliminate them and we had to call in an expert who took two hours to get rid of it. He said it was a virus.
Opa2 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Linux

Jun 20, 2008 14:26     

I run Ubuntu Linux and don't seem to have any virus problems. I dual boot with Windows XP and I like Linux a lot better.
OsamaBama report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@tech...

Jul 02, 2008 07:26     

I have run across this type of thing a lot when clients call me for problems like Opa2 in "none" states. I usually just call it a virus or trojan since that is what most people understand. In several I run across in a small community where they had only one "unscrupulous" pc tech, I found he had loaded "spyware" on computers that "scanned" a list of websites where he was an affiliate and was paid on a pay per click basis. I also had one client at work that was looking for used aircraft for sale, one address he "googled" that listed aircraft had expired and as is the case with many "legit" addresses, a russian company had bought the name and redirected the user to their own porn sites, and since he had to turn off the company loaded protection so he could surf, he ended up with a lot of porn of all genres. The article stated "dozens" of child porn images among "hundreds" of images. The laziness of the IT department is in all liklihood responsible.

Ronrlogan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1