joke isn't funny anymore

I assume the seven-level wipe refers to the patented Rove-Cheney "data-security" standards. Very reassuring.

Digg this story: Bush's Head Federal Watchdog Has Something To Hide.

Ho hum, another day, another Nixonian-in-all-but repercussions action by a WH staffer...

...so perhaps I can digress and ask - in all curiousness - what do these IT service companies do that makes them worthwhile?

I just ask because last evening, I was dropping a borrowed book off at a friends and she had a Geeksquad/Geeks-on-call (are they the same thing now) tech out for a "slow PC" issue. I didn't get overly nosy as he did what he did - but it looked pretty standard stuff... running a few trojan/spyware scans, updating virus defs, defrag, etc - and he DIDN'T do a few things I would have done (throttling up the virtual memory, for example).

I don't think I'm anything approaching an IT expert - and I didn't ask her what the call cost - but it seemed like something of a waste to me, at least for something simple like "my pc is running really slow".

Scott Bloch is a case study in contradictions, but before we jump to conclusions, recall this exchange between him and Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) -

""..But before revealing the e-mail, Davis asked Bloch what he would do if he learned an agency official was offering personal commentary about agency business on a personal account during business hours.

The e-mail "is from your private AOL account, and it was sent to a number of folks, some of whom, by the way, were kind enough to forward to me," Davis said. "In the e-mail, you begin by making disparaging remarks about Lurita Doan. ... Then you move on to some disparaging remarks about me and my colleague Mr. [John] Mica.".."

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0707/071307b1.htm

David had Bloch's personal e-mails sent from his work computer. Maybe someone tipped Bloch off that either the Administration or Congress were gathering up his emails.

Late December is about the time Bloch started to turn on his White House masters too...

Can we finally just agree that we're living in a banana republic, where only political foes face justice?

How do we change this? Peacefully, or through internal subterfuge?

The people responsible for sacking the people who sacked the directors wish it to be known that they themselves have been sacked.

A seven level wipe is republicans do a few minutes after taking a wide stance.

Bloch knew he was being watched and hunted by the GOP loyalists, as evidenced by the showboating by Tom Davis having Bloch's personal emails from AOL.

He ultimately has himself to blame, however, the investigation (and these leaks) appear to have the effect of attempting to silence him.

Did the two former top political deputies ever backup their laptops to external media? Ask them for the media.

Did the two former top political deputies use email? Subpoena it from internet provider.

Where did the two top political deputies go when they left Bloch's employ? Does the answer include a high GOP donor? Is there a Bush orchestrated circle-jerk here?

I wonder if cleaning disks/deleting emails will become the "tax evasion" of the 21st century law enforcememt. A business investigated in this state for crimes related to contracts with state government pleaded to crimes related to getting rid of emails related to the ongoing investigation.

thomas..."The explanation must be that the computers were left over from the Clinton administration..."

You must have forgotten that all Clinton era PC's were returned to the manufacturers because they were missing the "W" key.

My. Where to begin. No executive calls in an outside agency to deal with a "virus" on computer containing highly classified data. It's not clear that the Geeks are even a qualified govt contractor, among other things. The only executives in business or govt who do this sort of thing are one step away from an indictment.

Bloch's actions must violate clear govt protocols; in a senior investigator, they should justify his firing for cause and censure by his state bar. Ditto for his top two lieutenants.

The wipe should be irrelevent in this respect. If this were a govt computer, it should have been tied into the govt/agency's system daily. All his e-mails, at least, should have been backed up elsewhere. The wipe may have deleted documents, etc., that were not sent to others or included in what should be routine system back-ups of his hard drive.

Bloch's behavior guts the legitimacy of the computer evidence related to his current investigations and taints his department's current and past investigations. (Not that Shrub would mind that: he hates investigations like he hates higher inheritance taxes.) That should require his recusal from them all. Which means that he should propmptly resign or be fired.

One question. How much of this leak relates to the back and forth hard ball Bloch has been playing with the WH? Bloch is now an uncooperative Bushie who threatened to investigate the regents of the boy king. Inquiring minds want to know how those facts tie together. A case for Tucker Carlson to seek his baby teeth into for sure.

"7-level"(7 pass of the software) wipe, huh? That's a DoD standard for data destruction: wipe 7 times and overwrite with random data the same amount.

What is interesting about this is that, as I understand it from LEA's, if they seize your computer in the course of an investigation, or if the computer is recovered in the course of a theft, and they find file wiping software on there(especially Evidence Eliminator), they treat this as prima facae evidence that the computer owner/operator is engaged in suspicious behavior. GPG and other encryption methods engender the same levels of investigative turgor.

Mr. Bloch wanted something off there very badly, to do an end-run around his IT department, IT policy and ghod knows what else.

I'm a geek and geeks like to keep stuff - better check it out.

"How much of this leak relates to the back and forth hard ball Bloch has been playing with the WH?"

OMG - Bloch and the WH are blackmailing each other! They have something on him and he has lots on them.

Geeks on Call is not affiliated with Geek Squad. Geeks on Call are independently owned franchises with no retail affiliation, all staffed with MS+ or MCSE technicians. Geek Squad guys are essentially salesman with screwdrivers who work for Best Buy.

Subpoena Phelps, the franchise owner, and his tech. There's no Executive Privilege argument that can be made about them.

I work for a government entity and can say that cyber-security is taken really seriously. I honestly believe that if I were to give control of my work computer to an outside individual I would be quickly a.) investigated and b.) fired, probably after being suspended immediately for the term of a long "fact finding" session, as to shield the agency from lawsuits.

When will the Dems demand a special prosecutor - oh, I don't know, maybe Fitzgerald? - and investigate these matters fully?

Gonzales USA's
Myers refusal to testify
Rove's role in the Seigelman case
The countless, stalled, stiffled, stimied investigations

it is all the same ball of wax. I would grind all government to a halt until these matters are resolved. Otherwise, all is lost.

Thanks for the comment and cite to the GAO study.

My takeaway is that Rove's alchemists spun isolated acts of petty humor/"vandalism" - and the routine minor chaos involved in rapidly changing both parties and White House administrations (AND in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore) - into campaign gold, smearing the Clintons with claims of memorable but inconsequential acts.

The money quote on the purportedly missing keyboard "W's":

"As a result, we could not determine how
many keyboards were actually replaced because of missing or damaged
“W” keys."

That a report of this detail and length (220 pages) was necessary - at taxpayer expense - suggests the vindictiveness of Bush and Rove, not the pettiness of Clinton staffers.

Hmmm, What would make some-one in that position and with Bloch's experience do something like that?
And, if the white house started/is involved in the 'investigation', they are probably trying to hide something...

I remember an old, old Mad Magazine spoof of the East German government where each citizen was spied upon and that spy had a spy to check on him, and the checker had a spy to oversee him, and so on and so on.

Are we East Germany circa 1965 yet?

The key is to convict all these greedy minions post Shrubs theft of the presidency. This needs to be timed such that Shrub is unable to provide pardons. All these scumbags should be taking salad-tossing lessons starting Feb/09.

Acanthus wrote: "'BCWipe complies with options to invoke either the US Department of Defence (DoD) standard ...'

I'm not very knowledgeable about all this, but couldn't he have downloaded the shareware version of this and done it himself?"

I believe the shareware version only lets you do a single (possibly triple) wipe pass at a time, that being said, you can run it multiple time to achieve the desired effect. Not even a single pass is needed to eliminate a virus/spyware/malware infection though. A simple low-level reformat of the disk will take care of that if it's determined the infection can't be removed with standard security software. Wiping a drive even once takes a LONG time (imagine saving a 160 GIGAbyte file), and seven passes takes seven LONG times. You do not do it unless you expect the disk to leave your control (such as disposal to a landfill) or you expect someone will be performing a military or law enforcement level scan of your system.

As to the legality of have the Geeks come in, even if they have the proper security clearance, a purchase over $1,000 might very well to be handled by the contracting office - or at a minimum require a sign-off by another SES level official.