The majority of which do not work. I can tell you stories for days. But that is the point of using a public proxy...even if they can see you went to the library on a camera system, tracking an email to the workstation you used is difficult. Public libraries often have a hear no evil, see no evil approach to what is going on in their facility.  They often actively destroy useful data simply because they do not wish to be involved in any investigations.



That's the biggest problem right there. Access document with credentials and there should be a damn good reason for it. If not, you are immediately under suspicion. It would be difficult to actually prove a criminal charge just based on having accessed the document.



If one was intelligent enough to use a burner email account created from aforementioned workstation using a proxy it would be quite difficult to pin down who the email belonged to. Many of these public workstations also use either software that completely erases all user-made changes with every restart, or that will essentially use a differencing VHD that gets re-created with every restart. Meaning the data of what happened on a particular session on a workstation is eliminated from the workstation completely.

Once again, cameras that often do not work. Experience with that plenty of times, too. And that assumes you're getting to the data on that particular camera system before the tapes/drives overwrite the bits where our theoretical leaker's visit is visible. I've run a number of camera systems and I have to make a choice in footage quality. If I'm running a bank's camera system I'm going to want a good view of cars that stop at the bank, which likely means I'm not getting super high quality footage of cars just driving by the bank. An investigator would also have to determine the route taken to have any shot of getting to the right cameras in the first place.

It would also be wise to not actually use any credit cards or even have your cell phone when on these little journeys to the library, as that would be a big arrow pointing at you. Once again, not enough for a criminal conviction but enough to point them further in your direction. Assuming, of course, they could identify which workstation the communication came from in the first place.

Accessing a controlled document with one's own credentials from one's own workstation is the riskiest part of the chain. That and perhaps smuggling in a camera if they are routinely being searched in and out. (Folded paper makes me think they aren't) It's even less risky if you can get someone else's credentials and use someone else's machine to access the data. Given how many people have a post-it note with their password on it somewhere in their office even that isn't all that difficult.

This person is in the papers because she's low hanging fruit. She was dumb and she's going to get hammered hard because she made it easy and they have a need to put some fear in other leakers who aren't as stupid.

I can tell you that a lot of public libraries do not have security cameras at all, or if they do have security cameras they do not work properly.

...then you wouldn't be leaking in the first place.

There is some risk involved in the decision to break the law in the first place.

Had she followed the steps I outlined, it is highly unlikely she'd be facing criminal charges ATM. She'd be under some level of suspicion, but so would the other 6 who accessed the document. Re-tracing the steps of all those people would have been difficult and time consuming.

Luckily she made it stupid easy...which is why she was in cuffs mere hours after the story went live.

Scooter Libby.

Dude didn't even leak classified info. He got hammered for "lying to the FBI" in a non-scandal that turned out to not really involve him at all. Didn't stop the dems from screeching because they wanted Cheney's head.

That's been known for years. Other folks have been busted the same way.

iirc that is how they found that bomber who blew up a judge.