Footnote to FBI raid in HL2 source theft investigation

[Alrindel]

So two and a half months after a dawn raid on my friend's house in which they confiscated a whole truckload of his gear as "evidence", the FBI has admitted that they found nothing and has returned it all.  Most of it has been fucked with: it seems it's SOP to physically remove hard drives to search them, and they're not always careful about how they do it.  Some of it has been damaged: there's a system where he can file a claim for compensation.  Some of it is missing but there's probably nothing he can do about that since it's not listed on the receipt he signed, so tough luck buddy.  On the whole he got most of his stuff back and most of his data was intact, and he considers himself pretty lucky.

Lesson to be learned: should you ever be unlucky enough to have it happen to you, don't let them intimidate you into signing off on a vague list of seized materials if you want to have any chance of getting all your shit back.

He still has no idea why he was raided, and the FBI tend to live by "never apologize, never explain," so he'll probably never know.

http://squeedlyspooch.com/blog/archives/000144.html

[Alluvian]

Maybe somebody spoofed his IP address, maybe he is on a dynamic IP and shared at one point had the same IP as someone who is suspect.  Maybe he just communicated online with someone who is suspect.  Maybe he was in an online group with one of the suspects.

I seem to recall you mentioning he was involved in some hacking group that you claimed was harmless.  A suspect might have been one of his friends in that group.  Who knows.  Maybe when and if they find the guy the connection will become clear, or maybe they are barking up the wrong tree right now.

[Alrindel]

I seem to recall you mentioning he was involved in some hacking group that you claimed was harmless.

Actually I never mentioned it, it was someone else on the old WTO who did a google search on his name, found a mention of the Hungry Programmers described as "hackers" and concluded that Toshok was probably guilty because he was a hacker and there's no smoke without fire.  It is possible that the FBI/SS agents investigating this case are just as retarded as whoever that was, and made the same "logical" deduction (a hacker did this, someone on the Internet called Chris Toshok a hacker, therefore Chris Toshok did it).  For the record, the Hungry guys have nothing to do with "hacking" ie. system penetration; they're an informal bunch of friends who write and release very obscure open source toolkits.  They're no more a "hacking group" than LumCorp is.

"They traced his IP" seems like the most logical path that would have led them to him, but it makes no sense.  On the same day they also raided Charity Majors, who is also part of HP, with an identical warrant, but she has a completely different connection... but they didn't bat an eye at Peter Radavich, who is also a Hungry, who is Toshok's roommate, and who shares Toshok's DSL connection.

[HaemishM]

It is possible that the FBI/SS agents investigating this case are just as retarded as whoever that was, and made the same "logical" deduction (a hacker did this, someone on the Internet called Chris Toshok a hacker, therefore Chris Toshok did it).  

That's usually about all the thought processes needed for someone in law enforcement to associate a potential suspect as a hacker.

[SirBruce]

Anyone familiar with the Steve Jackson Games raid knows this is typical behavior.

Bruce