The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: edpc on October 25, 2017, 05:25:25 pm
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A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned.
Paddock is believed to have removed the hard drive before fatally shooting himself, and the missing device has not yet been recovered, sources told ABC News.
Investigators digging into Paddock’s background also learned he purchased software designed to erase files from a hard drive, but without the hard drive to examine it is impossible to know if he ever used the software, one source said.
The absence of substantial digital clues has left investigators struggling to piece together what triggered Paddock to kill 58 innocent concertgoers and injure more than 500 others on Oct. 1.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/las-vegas-shooters-laptop-missing-hard-drive/story?id=50709285
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OK, this is just getting weirder every day...
As the article mentions, other mass shooters have done similar things with their electronic devices, but not at the actual site of the incident.
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This is going to be very hard to explain about this "lone wolf."
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He took the hard drive out before starting his shooting rampage and did what - swallow it?
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I am become more convinced each day as something 'new' is revealed or leaked about this event - that this was some kind of shadow-gov black op, done for more than nefarious purposes.
Maybe seeing if they can off a targeted group of people in a mass casualty event - and then see if get away with it, so they can plan greater and grander 'events'?
After all, the mob runs Vegas and there are cameras everywhere - and yet this "guy" is a virtual ghost and nothing is known about the "perp" except what is fed to us.
In this case assuming the worst might be to our best advantage, since the government local and fed can no longer be trusted with telling us anything but false narratives/ aka lies to push whatever political ends they seek.
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He took the hard drive out before starting his shooting rampage and did what - swallow it?
And here we thought the Warren Commission's 'magic u-turn bullet" was fantastic.
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Las Vegas shooter's laptop missing its hard drive
ABC News, Oct 25, 2017, Jack Date, Mike Levine and Pierre Thomas
A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned.
Paddock is believed to have removed the hard drive before fatally shooting himself, and the missing device has not yet been recovered, sources told ABC News.
More: http://abcnews.go.com/US/las-vegas-shooters-laptop-missing-hard-drive/story?id=50709285
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I can understand taking it out and trying to destroy it, but it would still be there. It would still beg the question as to what he was trying to hide.
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I am become more convinced each day as something 'new' is revealed or leaked about this event - that this was some kind of shadow-gov black op, done for more than nefarious purposes.
Maybe seeing if they can off a targeted group of people in a mass casualty event - and then see if get away with it, so they can plan greater and grander 'events'?
After all, the mob runs Vegas and there are cameras everywhere - and yet this "guy" is a virtual ghost and nothing is known about the "perp" except what is fed to us.
In this case assuming the worst might be to our best advantage, since the government local and fed can no longer be trusted with telling us anything but false narratives/ aka lies to push whatever political ends they seek.
This is the kind of stuff that points to others pulling the strings. Second rule of cleaner ops is to get rid of things like hard drives and incriminating evidence of material support after the bodies that you don't want found.
Whatever the story is, it's not what the official story says it is.
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Investigators digging into Paddock’s background also learned he purchased software designed to erase files from a hard drive.....
Bleach Bit thrived on the attention from Hillary’s email story, but no company wants to be associated with this.
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I wonder if we will ever know what happened here.
Wasn't these a story a few weeks ago, where someone broke into the shooter's house, even though it was under FBI and/or LVPD surveillance?
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We know there was a break in after police had been there. What we don’t know is if it was under surveillance. The break in was through the front door. You’d have to ask two questions in this instance:
If the place was under surveillance, how the hell did they miss someone going through the front door?
If the home wasn’t under surveillance, why the hell not?
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Weird.
So he had a hard-drive-less laptop with him? I guess he could have had the presence of mind to take the HD out before he started shooting and disposed of it somewhere else in the hotel.
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Weird.
So he had a hard-drive-less laptop with him? I guess he could have had the presence of mind to take the HD out before he started shooting and disposed of it somewhere else in the hotel.
Or he never took it with him in the first place, and booted off of CD/DVD/USB.
P.S. I'm posting this from a laptop with no HDD/SDD. No point to this, just an interesting coincidence.
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Or he never took it with him in the first place, and booted off of CD/DVD/USB.
P.S. I'm posting this from a laptop with no HDD/SDD. No point to this, just an interesting coincidence.
So, the CD/DVD/USB whatever would be in the room.
And, that is an interesting coincidence. What do you do with it booting that way? Spreadsheets? Word docs?
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So, the CD/DVD/USB whatever would be in the room.
And, that is an interesting coincidence. What do you do with it booting that way? Spreadsheets? Word docs?
He could have removed them and tossed them out ahead of time (same with the HDD). It's possible to run a computer after removing the boot media, but a little tricky, however the article doesn't say the laptop was running so there's no reason, IMO, to assume that anything should be in the room.
I pretty much just use the laptop to attach a keyboard and monitor and then connect remotely to another machine in the house, but I could do anything with it I could do with a HDD (except maybe move around the house when booted off the network, but I'm not interested in that anyway). The HDD died some time ago and I just didn't see any reason to buy a new one.
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In one way, it blows the case open... but then, it's still, "wait and see". Bizarre at any rate.
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He could have removed them and tossed them out ahead of time (same with the HDD). It's possible to run a computer after removing the boot media, but a little tricky, however the article doesn't say the laptop was running so there's no reason, IMO, to assume that anything should be in the room.
I pretty much just use the laptop to attach a keyboard and monitor and then connect remotely to another machine in the house, but I could do anything with it I could do with a HDD (except maybe move around the house when booted off the network, but I'm not interested in that anyway). The HDD died some time ago and I just didn't see any reason to buy a new one.
He wasn't going fishing so he didn't need a weight, so why would he have had a non-usable laptop with him? The one thing we do know is that the laptop sans HD was there in the room with him.
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Weird.
So he had a hard-drive-less laptop with him? I guess he could have had the presence of mind to take the HD out before he started shooting and disposed of it somewhere else in the hotel.
It would be found.
This smells like someone took it out of the computer after he was dead. If it stinks like a coverup, it very likely might be.
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He wasn't going fishing so he didn't need a weight, so why would he have had a non-usable laptop with him? The one thing we do know is that the laptop sans HD was there in the room with him.
Wasn't he in the room for several days?
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Wasn't he in the room for several days?
Yes, and.....?
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Yes, and.....?
Maybe he used the laptop for the first several days, then removed and disposed of the HDD outside the room (most likely after making a bootable CD/USB and then wiping the HDD). Easier to be discreet throwing out a small laptop HDD(/CD/USB) than a laptop.
BTW, I don't any opinion on what this nutjob did or didn't do, I'm just pointing out that there are simple situations where he could have a laptop w/o a HDD and the HDD would not need to be found in the room.
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Somehow I heard on the news, they found out that the shooter (paddock) did a search on SWAT team tactics. I heard little else besides that.
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Maybe he used the laptop for the first several days, then removed and disposed of the HDD outside the room (most likely after making a bootable CD/USB and then wiping the HDD). Easier to be discreet throwing out a small laptop HDD(/CD/USB) than a laptop.
BTW, I don't any opinion on what this nutjob did or didn't do, I'm just pointing out that there are simple situations where he could have a laptop w/o a HDD and the HDD would not need to be found in the room.
Yes, I thought something similar. He could have tossed it in the trash in the ice machine room and no one would ever know.
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I think Ellen DeGeneres now has the hard drive. It was given to her by John McCain after Raphael Cruz snuck into Paddock’s room and stole it as Paddock took a knee while Frederica Wilson wearing nothing but a sequenced pink cowboy hat distracted him by singing the National Anthem then shooting him with Lee Harvey Oswald’s gun because the hard drive evidently had a picture of George Bush Senior grabbing Harvey Weinstein’s ass.
:pondering:
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What would be the point of him ditching the hard drive?
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I think Ellen DeGeneres now has the hard drive. It was given to her by John McCain after Raphael Cruz snuck into Paddock’s room and stole it as Paddock took a knee while Frederica Wilson wearing nothing but a sequenced pink cowboy hat distracted him by singing the National Anthem then shooting him with Lee Harvey Oswald’s gun because the hard drive evidently had a picture of George Bush Senior grabbing Harvey Weinstein’s ass.
:pondering:
I thought you were pulling my leg, but I have found further confirmation of this theory.
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Getting rid of all his recent activity, searches and saved data before someone could find it.
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What would be the point of him ditching the hard drive?
I don't think he had a hard drive. He was 64 and had a prescription for Viagra.
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I thought you were pulling my leg, but I have found further confirmation of this theory.
Dan Brown found it in an ancient monastery after it was transported back in time by the aliens that stole it from Ellen. Try to keep up.
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Problem:
The laptop was presumably operational in order to transmit whatever was being transmitted via camera to whatever overseas destination... unless that initial part of the official statement as been debunked.
That would necessitate the OS, being onboard a hdd or other boot mechanism (I would opt for thumb over cd btw) being in the room, unless it was pitched out the window post-action and pre-suicide.
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I don't think he had a hard drive. He was 64 and had a prescription for Viagra.
Soooo common these days.
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Getting rid of all his recent activity, searches and saved data before someone could find it.
Yes, but for what purpose? To hide what? That he mowed down a bunch of people with some of his rifles from a hotel room?
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To hide or protect whoever was bankrolling him would be my guess.
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To hide or protect whoever was bankrolling him would be my guess.
There we go, that's what I was going for.
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Problem:
The laptop was presumably operational in order to transmit whatever was being transmitted via camera to whatever overseas destination... unless that initial part of the official statement as been debunked.
That would necessitate the OS, being onboard a hdd or other boot mechanism (I would opt for thumb over cd btw) being in the room, unless it was pitched out the window post-action and pre-suicide.
What if you had a good amount of memory, and read all of the OS files (so that they would be in memory in filesystem buffers so the OS wouldn't need to access the disks)? Maybe turn off/down event logging so there was no reason to write to disk. Not sure about windows/mac, but this would almost certainly work under linux.
What would definitely work (in linux) would be to make a RAM based filesystem, copy the OS to it, and use the chroot command to run the app(s) and "OS" directly from RAM (as long as you have enough not to swap).
Again, I'm not saying he did (or didn't) do any of this, just pointing out that there are ways to have a running laptop with no HDD (or other boot media) in the room. If I were to guess, I'd go with boot off one of those tiny little USB drives about the size of a receiver for a wireless mouse, and then flick it out the window (or flush?) at the last minute.
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Again, I'm not saying he did (or didn't) do any of this, just pointing out that there are ways to have a running laptop with no HDD (or other boot media) in the room. If I were to guess, I'd go with boot off one of those tiny little USB drives about the size of a receiver for a wireless mouse, and then flick it out the window (or flush?) at the last minute.
As it turns out, I am exactly the guy to talk to... I specialize in making miniaturized win systems, either for portable or embedded instances... While you and I both know what is possible, I doubt your average luser could reasonably be expected to understand those intricacies... Just getting guaranteed wireless drivers hacked into a miniwin is a chore that would cause most folks to tip over in apoplexy. Now, maybe the shooter was not only a real estate dude, a whale gambler, AND a pooter guru - But I think that a huge stretch. Could be, but I doubt it.
But yeah - a mini thumb w/ knoppix or even a full load of mint would be doable, and easily destroyed... pull it out, whack it with a pistol butt, and flush it away...
Feasible, but unlikely.
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As it turns out, I am exactly the guy to talk to... I specialize in making miniaturized win systems, either for portable or embedded instances... While you and I both know what is possible, I doubt your average luser could reasonably be expected to understand those intricacies... Just getting guaranteed wireless drivers hacked into a miniwin is a chore that would cause most folks to tip over in apoplexy. Now, maybe the shooter was not only a real estate dude, a whale gambler, AND a pooter guru - But I think that a huge stretch. Could be, but I doubt it.
But yeah - a mini thumb w/ knoppix or even a full load of mint would be doable, and easily destroyed... pull it out, whack it with a pistol butt, and flush it away...
Feasible, but unlikely.
Seems like that would be a whole lot of trouble for just some lone nutcase to go to.
But it makes a lot more sense if there are others involved.
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Yes, but for what purpose? To hide what? That he mowed down a bunch of people with some of his rifles from a hotel room?
Perhaps he was into the same stuff that his brother got nabbed for.
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I posted this yesterday and it was ignored. The FBI has not ruled out that he was working alone.
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,287697.0.html
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I posted this yesterday and it was ignored. The FBI has not ruled out that he was working alone.
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,287697.0.html
Gun purchases, the surveillance system the gunman used and evidence gathered at the shooting site would be examined “to make sure another gun wasn’t used, another shooter wasn’t involved,” and determine whether someone else did not help him build the electronic gear.
“Did he buy it, could he build it himself?” Ridenour said of questions investigators would ask.
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I posted this yesterday and it was ignored. The FBI has not ruled out that he was working alone.
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,287697.0.html
Thanks, @austingirl.
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Seems like that would be a whole lot of trouble for just some lone nutcase to go to.
But it makes a lot more sense if there are others involved.
That's exactly it. He had the smarts, patience and determination to pull this off IMO.
Yet little details keep popping up like this that make me question this being the work of a sole person, because a lone nutcase who intended to off himself in the end wouldn't do such things.
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I'm not one to fall for all of the nutty conspiracy theories but this is now getting just too weird. He seems to have taken unusual steps to cover his tracks which may include possible connections to co-conspirators and to keep his motive completly unknown. Maybe, maybe not, but its getting harder and harder to conclude anything else but.
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Maybe Paddock was just paranoid, and by removing and disposing of the hard drive, he imagined that he would be "cleaning up after himself" (for lack of a better term). See the short story by Ray Bradbury entitled "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fruit_at_the_Bottom_of_the_Bowl
He was in the room four days or more, right? He could have removed the drive and tossed it into the hotel trash the same day of the shooting. Perhaps he had an alternate way of booting the laptop. I know nothing of the trials and tribulations of Windows users, but booting a Mac from an external source -- hard drive, USB flashdrive, SD card, etc. -- is a trivial matter. Nuthin' to it.
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I'm not one to fall for all of the nutty conspiracy theories but this is now getting just too weird. He seems to have taken unusual steps to cover his tracks which may include possible connections to co-conspirators and to keep his motive completly unknown. Maybe, maybe not, but its getting harder and harder to conclude anything else but.
Previous mass shooters have also destroyed electronic devices to cover their tracks. I'm sure Paddock was aware of this. However, the others usually did this is locations far from the actual scene. What's really driving the conspiracies and lack of confidence in the investigation is the confusing and contradictory information officials have released. Add in the fact the FBI has become incredibly politicized and you're asking for rampant mistrust.
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Maybe Paddock was just paranoid, and by removing and disposing of the hard drive, he imagined that he would be "cleaning up after himself" (for lack of a better term). See the short story by Ray Bradbury entitled "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fruit_at_the_Bottom_of_the_Bowl
He was in the room four days or more, right? He could have removed the drive and tossed it into the hotel trash the same day of the shooting. Perhaps he had an alternate way of booting the laptop. I know nothing of the trials and tribulations of Windows users, but booting a Mac from an external source -- hard drive, USB flashdrive, SD card, etc. -- is a trivial matter. Nuthin' to it.
Nope. If it is true that he was using the cameras as stated, that requires a wireless (or wired) hub, and it requires a computer to collect the data on, either to display or to transmit abroad (as the original story told)... Something was jamming the deal, and if there was only one laptop, that's probably it, which means it was operational till after the shooting.
They had 'eyes on' from the time he was discovered (before the shooting) till after the fact, and he did not exit the room... So if the hdd is discarded, it would be in the local trash (which they would have collected into evidence as a matter of course), or it went down the drain (which would necessitate a usb or cd boot, shattered and flushed), or it went out the window. Not any other options.
And it is not hard to alternatively boot windows. But it is hard to alternatively boot windows as a mini and run software that connects to the camera, and the networking (VPN tunnel through an onion) to send an encrypted and diffused data stream.
Either that thumb would be custom built by a better than average geek, or he knew how himself (either that way, or proficient enough with linux to do the same), or it was a hard drive, with normally loaded and operated software. There aren't any other options, providing they got the story straight.
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Previous mass shooters have also destroyed electronic devices to cover their tracks.
That implies getting away with it. He ate a bullet. Why would it matter at that point?
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That implies getting away with it. He ate a bullet. Why would it matter at that point?
Don’t know, but the three mentioned in the article - Steven Kazmierczak, Adam Lanza, and Cho Seung Hui - also died of self-inflicted gunshots.
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That implies getting away with it. He ate a bullet. Why would it matter at that point?
Maybe. Let me toss this out as a possible scenario. GF or her family member kidnapped by Abu Sayef in PI, demands shooting event in addition to cash for ransom and requires proof. He has to destroy evidence of that connection (cover that track to PI). Failure to do so will result in execution of hostage(s). To cover tracks he pulls thumb drive, tosses it out the window and suicides after shooting.
That would assume he acted alone. There is a lot here that would make more sense if he did not.
I know, bad thriller novel material, but one possible scenario.
Quick question, If he had streamed video would there still have been temporary files on his computer unless he disposed of the HDD?
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roamer wrote:
"And it is not hard to alternatively boot windows. But it is hard to alternatively boot windows as a mini and run software that connects to the camera, and the networking (VPN tunnel through an onion) to send an encrypted and diffused data stream."
Not on the Mac.
I can produce a boot volume on nearly ANY storage device, that will be the equal of any OS installed on an internal drive, HDD or SSD.
A Mac doesn't care from where it's booted -- only that the boot volume have "what's necessary".
Again, I never touch PCs/Windows. Have no idea what's possible there.
But I know the Mac (30 years' experience).
This is easy-peasey on the Mac side of things.
(An academic point, since Paddock was probably using Windows...)
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Maybe. Let me toss this out as a possible scenario. GF or her family member kidnapped by Abu Sayef in PI, demands shooting event in addition to cash for ransom and requires proof. He has to destroy evidence of that connection (cover that track to PI). Failure to do so will result in execution of hostage(s). To cover tracks he pulls thumb drive, tosses it out the window and suicides after shooting.
That would assume he acted alone. There is a lot here that would make more sense if he did not.
I know, bad thriller novel material, but one possible scenario.
Yeah, I have had similar thoughts. It's a crazy reach... but plausible as anything. Normally folks who do this kind of thing have an itch to scratch, and want to tell you about it. Or they're nucking futz - which, as your initial observations declared, puts any sort of behavior on the table...
But setting that aside, one must ask, what's the point?
Quick question, If he had streamed video would there still have been temporary files on his computer unless he disposed of the HDD?
Depends on the software, but yeah. Much easier to set the temp directory inside of an encrypted container, and when complete, reformat that container and change the access password that is the key to the encryption. if the former and latter keys are well constructed, and you have a fair buttload of files to dump into it after the fact, no one will figger that spaghetti out. Barring a handy coal fire, that's how I would do it... And it would be about as fast as pulling the hdd out and finding some means of disposal.
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Yeah, I have had similar thoughts. It's a crazy reach... but plausible as anything. Normally folks who do this kind of thing have an itch to scratch, and want to tell you about it. Or they're nucking futz - which, as your initial observations declared, puts any sort of behavior on the table...
But setting that aside, one must ask, what's the point?
Depends on the software, but yeah. Much easier to set the temp directory inside of an encrypted container, and when complete, reformat that container and change the access password that is the key to the encryption. if the former and latter keys are well constructed, and you have a fair buttload of files to dump into it after the fact, no one will figger that spaghetti out. Barring a handy coal fire, that's how I would do it... And it would be about as fast as pulling the hdd out and finding some means of disposal.
Wouldn't that leave an IP to trace to, though? Near as I can figure, he just wanted an easy way to make sure no one could read where the video was going. If that's the case (and the HDD wasn't removed by someone else, either before the police got there, or afterwards), that would be a sure way for someone who isn't well versed in the possibilities to get the job done quickly. Likely, if he did it, it went out the window.
That reeks of something to hide, not some great 'cause', in which self-disclosure would be hampered, not enhanced by the drive being removed. It just doesn't fit the 'lone warrior for a cause/nutcase' profile. Smells more like either he was performing under duress, had a cohort who removed the drive to conceal information, or it was subsequently removed to cover something like a sting gone bad. (Not discarding, but not endorsing any of those possibilities).
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Wouldn't that leave an IP to trace to, though?
Generally, no. At least not if there's an onion router involved.
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Likely, if he did it, it went out the window.
Or down the drain. yep.
That reeks of something to hide, not some great 'cause', in which self-disclosure would be hampered, not enhanced by the drive being removed. It just doesn't fit the 'lone warrior for a cause/nutcase' profile. Smells more like either he was performing under duress, had a cohort who removed the drive to conceal information, or it was subsequently removed to cover something like a sting gone bad. (Not discarding, but not endorsing any of those possibilities).
Yeah, it smells. I can't put my finger on it either, but I agree with you.
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Wouldn't that leave an IP to trace to, though?
Perhaps. Maybe that's how police found this...........
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php?topic=287986.new#new
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Again, I never touch PCs/Windows. Have no idea what's possible there.
But I know the Mac (30 years' experience).
This is easy-peasey on the Mac side of things.
(An academic point, since Paddock was probably using Windows...)
Yes, it is likely academic - If he is a hacker (in the real sense), he'd likely use Linux. I sure would. If he was forced, or someone made it for him, or if he was doing it for himself with normal knowledge, likely it was Windows.
And to be fair to the academic point, I would imagine Win can run from about anything now too - A full version, I mean. I have yet to come to grips with the size of thumb drives nowadays. It is an interesting idea though, and a fun project to find out this winter. Anymore, that might actually be easier than hacking a mini down. I will probably be pursuing that angle, once the snow flies and I sit back down at my dev box...
:beer:
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Perhaps. Maybe that's how police found this...........
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php?topic=287986.new#new
Okay, I'm gonna ask a question. How would they know his search history if the hard drive was gone?
Wouldn't all those files be on the Hard drive?
It seems to me, and correct me if I am wrong, please, that the only other way would be to be already monitoring his activity on the web, which would mean they were already watching the guy for whatever reason, whether part of an investigation or part of a sting, and monitoring his web activity.
Either way, if the shooter was being monitored, someone should have had some sort of idea of what he was up to?
That article spent a lot of column inches saying how much they were spending, how many people they were talking to, they were working overtime, etc--all of which reminded me of the FBI recap of the Flight 800 investigation, (which despite all they did, failed to interview ANY of the 140+ people who saw something going up, before the plane came down.)
Call me cynical, but I don't expect to see many, if any, answers out of this, and I won't likely have a lot of faith in the ones I see.
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Okay, I'm gonna ask a question. How would they know his search history if the hard drive was gone?
Wouldn't all those files be on the Hard drive?
No, and you were adequately answered in the link to the other article.
Your ISP is required by law to retain some giant amount of your habits (I think 7 years)
It seems to me, and correct me if I am wrong, please, that the only other way would be to be already monitoring his activity on the web, which would mean they were already watching the guy for whatever reason, whether part of an investigation or part of a sting, and monitoring his web activity.
The ISP keeps history, all the major search engines keep history (if you sign into them, or if you don't clean your cookies regularly), and I am getting toward being certain that MS is keeping history - all on their servers, not your machine.
But, that all might be false too - someone else could have signed into his accounts and built this history over a long period of time (for instance if his girlfriend were actually an activist and using him).
One thing it does show is that he, himself, is not a hacker.
If ouy are doing something you shouldn't on the web, you do it from a laptop with a Linux OS, mac address spoofer, and an onion router, and absolutely *NO* identifying info onboard... Some folks keep a spare drive just for such purposes. Flip out your normal drive, flip in the war drive, go find a hotel, coffee shop, or unprotected wifi down in town somewhere, and assume your fully aliased ID.
Never EVER from home, and never using your normal aliases and logins.
He is likely not a geek.
and don;t ask me how I know.
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Thanks for clearing that up.
The flip side is: If you aren't a hacker you have no privacy on line, but we assume that part.
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Thanks for clearing that up.
The flip side is: If you aren't a hacker you have no privacy on line, but we assume that part.
That's right. But there are things you can do... Use an anonimizer page as your home page and surf from there... or at least StartPage (https://www.startpage.com/), which so far, claims it isn't tracking (everyone should be doing this anyway)...
Don't use 'signed on' services for email and searching, and clean your machine with CCleaner (https://www.piriform.com/) (to remove temp files and cookies) a couple times a week. (everyone should be doing this anyway)
and no messaging or email should be considered any safer for info than a post card.
If you have sensitive info to impart, let your friends and loved ones know ahead of time by other means of a password you will use... And then create the info in a separate doc, compress it as an arj zip using the password you gave them, and attach it to a standard email... Or PGP or OpenPGP encryption is fine (encrypted email provision) is fine, except the key has to be transmitted differently than email - normally by eyeball as I said (and both ends need the capability).
There are ways... but, yeah.
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Thanks for clearing that up.
The flip side is: If you aren't a hacker you have no privacy on line, but we assume that part.
@roamer_1
@Smokin Joe
I just said on another thread, perhaps he had more than one computer, that I have FOUR. With the money he had, he could have as many as he wants, plus pads, plus stuff on his phone.