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Technology, although, most of the time is better, it is not
perfect. Even more, sometimes, it can be destructive. From sophisticated nuclear
weapons to a common laptop, this new technology can provoke disasters, whether
is implies thousands of people or just one.
In the last situation is Michael Fiola who was accused of
child pornography. Fiola, a former investigator at the Department of Industrial
Accidents in Massachusetts
had his old laptop stolen and his employers replaced it with a new one. Little
did he know that this would lead to a chain reaction. After his bosses fired Fiola
without allowing him to say anything in his defense, the state charged him in
August 2007. Moreover, his friends didn’t believe he was innocent,
either.
Even though he tried to fight the criminal charges, no one
believed him. He stated many times that he didn’t download those child pornography
images but prosecutors were convinced he was guilty.
According to PC World, last week Fiola was vindicated of
child pornography charges as the forensic investigators proved he was
innocent. The problem was with the laptop which had been poorly configured
and the antivirus didn’t protect the computer. The Microsoft SMS (Systems
Management Server) software was supposed to keep his laptop up to date but it
didn’t work.
TG Daily reported that Tami Loehrs, a computer forensic investigator who was
hired by the defense, said that a computer virus scanned about 40 sites a
minute and downloaded thousands of images, adding that “the child pornography
was just a very small portion of it” and “the majority was just bizarre porn.”
She said that the computer “was being hit with everything.”
With the horrible event, Fiola, who is now an insurance
salesman in North Scituate,
Rhode Island, has become a
spokesman for those people who went through similar situations. He said that
the last 18 months were the worst of his life.
“I'm 53 years old and I don't think I've cried as much in my
whole life as I did in the past 18 months,” said Fiola in an interview he gave
to the IDG News Service.
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