A 40-year old man from Ridderkerk in the Netherlands has been arrested for reportedly downloading files accidentally sent to him by the police, then apparently refusing to send them back unless he received a reward.
After the man reportedly downloaded the files, the police reached out and told him to delete them, but “He stated that he would only comply if he received something in return.” Thus, the police chose to arrest the man and search his home for the files
If you send someone digital files, or grant them access and they download them, there’s no “sending them back”. Sure, you can demand they delete every copy, but you’d never even know if they didn’t comply! Even if you cut their power/internet and the police arrive within minutes, they could still copy to an external device, send or upload them, physically transport the device, etc…
From a cybersecurity standpoint, assume a hostile foreign power is using a supercomputer offline to break the encryption on a duplicated drive right now, or whatever the worst-case scenario is. It’s like pee in a swimming pool: once it’s out there, it’s out there…
The proper way to do this is to send an estimate for services rendered. You might make $150/hr at it. If you go so far as to require destruction of the storage media then the estimate would go up.
You mean like a receipt of transfer so there’s a record trail of the files
Or like a chocolate bar?
Give the man his chocolate bar!
They should send him a drawing of a spider.
I think that’s fair. FTP.
Imagine trying to blackmail the police…
The police fucked up by sending him the files and there should probably be an investigation as to how that could happen, but that doesn’t mean the man just gets to keep the files and do with them however he please.
This… honestly seems like a fairly straightforward case of that guy being a dick, fucking around, and then immediately finding out. I imagine the conversation went something like
official: you were improperly sent some sensitive information; you are not in any trouble due to this, but we do need it back, and we need you to sign some documents that affirm that you have not made copies or further distributed the material.
guy: I can do that… for money.
official: …solicitation of bribes from a government official is, however, a crime, so you are now under arrest.
guy: wait no NO-
