Discarding Digital Detritus
Out with the old ...
It’s a chilly, rainy early January Saturday here in the People’s Republik of California, and there’s no better time to get a jump on spring cleaning. As I mentioned in Regarding Flash Drive Usage, I recently got some new storage. Prior to that I was thinking about Continuity Planning in terms of mobile devices. If I can round up $550 that’s earmarked for a Google Pixel 8 I’m going to add GrapheneOS to my tool kit. And if you saw that article, you’ll know I was pondering what to do with Android phones that date as far back as 2015.
Exec Summary: These are the potential culls. Four older Androids, one that’s been in a Byzantine failure mode for years. Two functional 8GB USB3 drives, one USB2 drive, and one diminutive 4GB microSD. They’re doomed, but you should be just as careful turning down old gear as you are in evaluating and acquiring new stuff.
First, I hope none of you are criming. Please, learn the rules of the road and stay in your lane. The online world today looks like a shit blizzard over a sewage lagoon, there’s no need for you to stick your necks out. That being said, you need to learn the difference between prudent operations and obstruction of justice.
Having some chats, not sure about these people or what’s going on in here. I should set a one week retention on these messages. Fine.
Having some chats, the provenance of the data in this link that has been shared is suspect. Oh, what’s this? Credit card numbers? DELETE DELETE DELETE. Not Fine.
You want to be familiar with 18 U.S.C. Chapter 73 - Obstruction of Justice.
The specific ones to avoid are parts of Title 18 1512(b)
(b)Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to—
(1) influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding;
(2)cause or induce any person to—
(A) withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or other object, from an official proceeding;
(B) alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding;
and Title 18 1512(c)(1)
(c)Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
Positive Steps:
So how do you avoid trouble? Here are just some of the ways.
Anyone recklessly talking about criming is a psychopath and/or a snitch. Eject them from your world forthwith.
Don’t log stuff that doesn’t need to be logged.
Do log stuff that does need to be logged.
Floods, fires, burglaries, and raids happen. Is your data safe?
Browsers offer incognito mode, Qubes will give you disposable VMs. If you Google how to use CRISPR to make dianthroritis and then someone actual catches it and dies, you WILL serve 300 mobuls in prison, I guarantee it. So don’t leave that in your Google searches.
Some of this you can learn by reading - from me, from others, but best of all from court cases. Look at search warrants and detailed criminal complaints. Look at all those Capitol Siege dipshits, getting enhanced sentences because they first spent a bunch of time in chat yapping about their exposure, then wiped their phone, but someone else in the chat cooperated. Examine their mistakes, then don’t DO any of that stuff.
Proper Disposal:
The poster child for mishandling old assets is Hunter Biden. Ratty laptop put in for repair, doesn’t bother to cleanse it first, then doesn’t pick up it? He’s getting fucked with hardcore over planted bullshit, but there’s a limit on my sympathy for him.
When you are done with a device, you’ve got the data you need from it, and you’re ready to let it go, you MUST ensure that it’s clean.
Androids and iPhones should be factory reset, enable storage encryption if it's not done by default, and then arrange to fill their storage with random noise. When you delete something on a phone IT’S NOT ACTUALLY DELETED, the storage it occupies is marked as reusable and the content just sits there until the space is needed. So fill ‘em up with your cat picture collection. And since you’re donating them for recycling, cleansing them first is just being prudent.
Any other sort of storage is the same - a delete isn’t a delete unless the data is overwritten. If you employ a special wipe it down tool like DBAN, that’s mens rea. Those little thumb drives are both old and small, but they’re totally not worthless. If I install Ventoy on them, that’s overwriting the partition table, which is hard on forensics, and then I’ll put a couple small operating systems on them.
If you have something you’ve decided to actually throw away, consider putting it anywhere other than the trash can by your back door. Federal prisons are full of people who goofed on the clean up phase of what would have otherwise been a perfectly safe endeavor.
Conclusion:
Even if democracy prevails in the coming election, the condition of this country is declining. People who’ve never had trouble tend to be pretty horrified when I describe what I’ve faced. “But … you didn’t do anything illegal!@!@!” And the only response is “There’s no law in Texas, just cops.”
Several times during 2023 I had the chance to counsel people at various stages of them awakening to the hazardous nature of exercising their natural right of free speech. Some didn’t find me until the trouble commenced. I hope I took some of the sting out of it. A lucky few got to me for prophylactic treatment prior to doing anything. Thus far they’ve all made clean getaways.
2024 is gonna be a long year, so pace yourselves, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Stay safe out there.