Forensic Focus

Legal challenge to web child abuse inquiry

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:58:26 GMT

One of Britain's biggest online paedophile inquiries is to be challenged in the court of appeal amid allegations from campaigners that hundreds of men have been wrongly convicted in a mass miscarriage of justice. For more than two years a small group of experts have claimed that Operation Ore, the police inquiry into thousands of British men, was tainted because the database at the centre of the investigation contained evidence of widespread credit card fraud. Their allegations will be tested for the first time in the appeal court within weeks... More (The Guardian)

How To Seize a Laptop And Make It Stick

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:15:59 GMT

On May 21, Justice Margot Botsford of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ordered police to return computer equipment that they had seized from Boston College student Riccardo Calixte in March. Police had obtained a warrant and seized the computer equipment on the basis of three alleged acts committed by Calixte... More (Slashdot)

SANS Forensics Blog has moved

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:11:48 GMT

The SANS Forensics blog has moved to its new permanent home https://blogs.sans.org/computer-forensics. Update your feeds too, the new address is https://blogs.sans.org/computer-forensics/feed/

Don't Let Legacy Media Foil Your Forensic Investigation

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:11:55 GMT

When performing incident response and forensics on a compromised system, the focus of analysis is on the most immediately available and relevant sources of evidence. Volatile data collected from a running system, the hard drive, network flow data, and logs collected on a central server all serve as useful sources for determining the particulars of the incidents. But what about incidents that go back further, requiring you to dig into backup tapes -- and potentially very old ones? More (Dark Reading)

UK members - Can you HACK it?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:07:00 GMT

Forensic Focus is pleased to support The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), a charity which will be familiar to many UK members, especially those involved with child protection issues. The NSPCC's annual HACK (Hike Against Cruelty to Kids) is now in its fifth year and has so far raised over £250,000. After four successful years in the north this summer there are five 25 mile HACKS taking place in some of the most stunning locations across the UK: Yorkshire 5 September, Northern Ireland 5 September, Wales 12 September and Devon 27 September. And just in case you need any further motivation, there's a Forensic Focus T-Shirt for everyone who completes the hike - what more could you ask for? More details here

Swiss bust CP ring

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:25:00 GMT

Swiss police say they have uncovered an internet CP network spanning 78 countries and involving at least 2,000 IP internet addresses. An inquiry was launched after a tip-off from Interpol about a website based in Switzerland being used as a forum for illegal CP films. The site was officially devoted to hip hop music but was used to access videos of CP via secret codes... More (BBC)

E-fense Announces Newest Version of Helix3 Pro

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:26:42 GMT

E-fense has released the next version of Helix3 Pro 2009R2. The new version contains many new features including the ability to image RAM on Linux and the ability to send multiple forensic images over the network using the new Helix3 Pro Receiver. Also included are a few bug fixes identified by the community like encoding problems for foreign languages and an adjustment of the order of collection to meet order volatility standards.

Evidence of Thriving Forensic Business

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:48:31 GMT

Two police officers resigned from the force after they spotted a gap in the market to supply high-quality forensic examination of mobile phones and computer records. They set up Bolton-based Zentek Forensics in 2004 using their extensive knowledge of police procedures and prosecution needs to offer a tailored digital evidence service... More (The Bolton News)

LinkAlyzer released

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:24:05 GMT

Sanderson Forensics has announced the release of LinkAlyzer. LinkAlyzer is a forensic tool that decodes and displays the content of multiple link files (Windows Shortcuts) at the same time. LinkAlyzer Loads multiple (tested on 40,000+) link files into a grid and displays all of the normal Link file contents, dates and times, vol serial numbers and names, relative paths, sharenames, working directories etc...

New UK cyber chief to protect against computer attacks

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:32:03 GMT

Britain is to appoint its first national cyber security chief to protect the country from terrorist computer hackers and electronic espionage, Gordon Brown will announce tomorrow. The Prime Minister's move comes amid fears that the computer systems of government and business are vulnerable to online attack from hostile countries and terrorist organisations... More (The Independent)