Ever wondered how malware can endanger your life?

Jul 11, 2008 11:08 GMT  ·  By

You never think that spam, spyware, or any other form of malicious software can impact you in a truly life-altering way. Well, it definitely can and Julie Amero, a substitute teacher from Connecticut, is living proof of that. She was charged with allowing 7th grade children to view pop-ups containing adult material, but she was never found guilty. The court ordered a do over, but a trial data has yet to be rescheduled.

In 2007 Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein dismissed the accusations brought against Julie Almero, but the state of Connecticut is not willing to let it go that easily. Although it brings serious charges that prevent Julie from getting a job as a teacher, the state prosecutors have not set a trial date. The simple fact that she is on the active trial list puts huge amounts of stress on the former substitute teacher. As a matter of fact, she has been hospitalized several times and is taking stress medication in order to cope with it all.

Kevin Kane, Chief Attorney with the state of Connecticut: "I know that the new trial was granted. It's a pending case. We can't and shouldn't be commenting on it."

What are the charges brought against Julie Amero? She is accused of child endangerment after several pop-ups appeared on the computer provided to her by the Kelly Middle School in Norwich while she was teaching 7th grade pupils. Although the prosecution stated this was due to her surfing adult web pages, security pros have proven that it was all due to malware that managed to infect the computer because the school failed to update the security software installed on the machine and julie was too computer illiterate to do anything about it.

Rick Green is strongly supporting Julie Amero and asking the authorities to speed up the process. According to him Julie has lost "a baby and at least one job because of the conviction and enduring stress". She is treated in a similar fashion as the convicts at Guantanamo Bay; she is considered guilty, but refused due process because her case isn't important enough.