Is it Legal to Search for Information About Computer Forensics

My question involves criminal law for the state of: all I am interested in computer forensics so I googled it and i came across a government document written by the homeland security instructing law inforcements how to seize evidence is it a crime I read that ? It was in open view

I am worried it was in open view in pdf format

All I did was google computer forensics was that illegal I don't think so? I am interested in computer forensics

Unless you somehow managed to illegally access (i.e. "hack") a government website, a document you find online is generally going to be relatively fair game to read.

MOST "government documents" are public record to one degree or another. Info, policies and procedures, etc. are generally things that might not be widely publicized, but are not - strictly speaking - secret.

So was it legal if it was in open view?

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Quoting Clarie82

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So was it legal if it was in open view?

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No one here can give you absolute assurance that you didn’t violate some law in obtaining the document. In order to know if there was a problem I’d need to know what you did to get it and what the document is. That said, if the document came up listed on an ordinary Google search and you could access it without needing to log-in to a site, provide a password, or whatever then the document is almost certainly freely available to the public to look at. This assumes that you are in the U.S. of course.

Yes it was a document in pdf format instructing officers how to seize evidence from the home land security all I googled is how do investigators able to locate downloads of a computer and that came up

It was searching and obtaining computers from the department of justice in pdf format I think

Is that legal?

Or electronic evidence guide for first time responders in pdf format

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Electronic evidence guide for first time responders crime scene investigator in pdf format

Are you there?

Did you read what it was?

Iost my other password but the article is investigation concerning computers and other networks from the U.S. department of justice I downloaded it pdf format

YOU. DO. NOT. HAVE. ANYTHING. TO. WORRY. ABOUT.

If someone left something that isn't supposed to be publicly available unsecure, that's on them.

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Quoting Crystal2017

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Iost my other password but the article is investigation concerning computers and other networks from the U.S. department of justice I downloaded it pdf format

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Chill out. If you came up on a document in a regular Google search you did nothing illegal.

I agree with free9man and qwaspolk69, you have nothing to worry about. If the document should be confidential they should fix their own security. I hope this puts your mind at ease :)