[edit - This is an experiment in desperation. I normally wouldn't engage in comment involving political content since it's so often divisive and irrelevant but in this case there might be an argument for it. As I mention below, we've been in the digital age for quite some time and 9 out of 10 of us are still cavalier about data management. This article is a way to call attention to such issues that I'd hadn't tried yet...]
Hunter Biden (son of current US President) is facing various legal charges and some of the prosecution's information is based upon files found on various computers Hunter seems to have left lying around. There was one apparently abandoned at a repair shop, one left in a rental car during or after a business trip and at least one or two other laptops mentioned in the news over the past year or two. I have no specific information on or comment upon these cases but I'd like to note here that the predicament raises an interesting question - interesting to me, that is. Namely, how would one play Hunter's hand? What if you were in the same situation? Is the situation even defensible?
I'm not a lawyer, but Hunter Biden is - he's got a JD although I'm not sure if he's practiced. I don't know if he came up with his strategy himself or if he's getting very good advice but there's certainly a great angle for defense here: Biden has never denied posession of the laptops. Is that a problem? Not as such, because defense can repeatedly raise the possibility of someone planting files upon his machines for political or other nefarious purposes. As many of us constantly shout, these systems in the hands of the average user are as secure as Andy Griffith's jail, in which Otis the town drunk would let himself out at the end of his daily sentence. Yes, they MIGHT be operated securely, but it takes work - and there are those very interested in breaking into high value targets.
Not only are average systems not very secure, but the hardware (easily trackable to a user) has not been the object of denial. Biden's team is right not to claim lack of ownership because first, it's easier to indict files or configurations (possible to remotely manipulate) and second, it's hard to deny ownership. Think of all the ways your computer could be connected to you:
- SKU number or bar code of device associated with credit card purchase
- processor serial number (if any)
- device serial number
- MAC address of NIC
- motherboard serial number (if present)
- any serials of peripherals or internal options
- hard drive serial numbers
- memory serial, stock or control numbers
- ISP logs (if unaltered and reliably seen to be so)
- browser, OS and application logs (if unaltered and reliably seen to be so)
- and so on. The Biden stance of having no challenge to ownership dodges every above problem that could help the prosecution if defense claimed that the laptops were planted. And another thing that's brilliant about it is that it avoids the common frame of mind that 'nobody can see what I do on my phone'. Personal computers have been around for about a generation and I've had a cell phone for about 20 years now. This stuff is NOT NEW. But the average Joe Sixpack still has no concept of electronic security... and is even IN IGNORANCE dismissive of whomever brings it up. Either Hunter or somebody with him Actually Gets It.
P.S. - and to the idiots who thought I was about to make some political statement, here's one: I predict that whoever you like is gonna lose.
P.P.S. - Here's another way to illustrate the moral of the story: you could be next. Outside the highly public circumstances of Biden's family, the loss of a cell phone, a laptop or even a PC lost in a burglary presents essentially anyone to the dangers of the loss of control of one's data. If the "new owner" gets curious about anything important beyond wiping for resale then now YOU ARE HUNTER BIDEN.
