[technic]

Hi Just wondering does anyone know - sometimes I hear of emails being retrieved from peoples hardrives. How is this possible. Are my emails and chats constantly being stored on my system?

[Advertisements]

depends on which email or chat client you use...but....for anything to work it has to have some interaction with your hard drive and some information is always stored somewhere. depending on the circumstances it's possible to recover just about anything done on a computer

a good rule of thumb, if you wouldn't want someone to physically hear you say something or otherwise personally know what you've said, don't "say it" on your computer

[dsenette]

depends on which email or chat client you use...but....for anything to work it has to have some interaction with your hard drive and some information is always stored somewhere. depending on the circumstances it's possible to recover just about anything done on a computer

a good rule of thumb, if you wouldn't want someone to physically hear you say something or otherwise personally know what you've said, don't "say it" on your computer

[technic]

Where exactly are the chats and emails stored?
Thanks

[dsenette]

depends on the program

why?

[technic]

Well Msn chats and emails? I just wonder about it? I would like to get an answer from someone who knows for definite. Are you an expert at IT? Not being rude

[Neil Jones]

By default MSN Messenger chat sessions are not saved, however in the program you can specify that they are saved. In the default state once a message window is closed, that's the end of it.

Email, if you log in at the Hotmail site then it would normally be possible to retrieve the details through the browser history.

[technic]

Thanks what about for litigation and all that

[Neil Jones]

Litigation? What exactly are you trying to do please?

[technic]

I just read this on some website and wondered if I have understood it correctly?

More than 12 billion instant messages are sent worldwide every day, and of those, one billion are sent from workstations, reports IDC, a Framington, Mass.-based consultancy. The skyrocketing popularity of IM raises interesting forensic implications. For example, instant messaging by Congress member Mark Foley, in the recent page scandal, demonstrates how IMs can be traced back to the sender, and how content can be recovered in investigations or litigation.

I am curious to know if conversations and emails previously sent can be recovered even if the MSN isn't set to save messages?
Thanks

[dsenette]

if someone wants something bad enough...ANYTHING even stuff you delete, can be recovered....

even if your machine isn't set to record the IMs the information has to pass through your system somewhere so that you can see the chat progress etc... normal people can't get to this info bot IT forensic types have special tricks up their sleeve


hence the "a good rule of thumb, if you wouldn't want someone to physically hear you say something or otherwise personally know what you've said, don't "say it" on your computer "