Forensic Focus

Recently, I attended a barbecue at a friend’s house in north London, where another friend was trying to fix his laptop. “Do you realise that there are three people, right now, using your wireless broadband?” the computer expert asked my

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just look up the term “digital forensics” in the dictionary? Unfortunately, as you and others have found, it is not that easy. Even better, wouldn’t it be great if we could sort out

If you think finding out who did what with your data always means calling in high-priced spooks armed with arcane software, think again. The trend is toward placing the power to handle investigations in the hands of enterprises themselves. Why?

From prominent murder cases to lowly divorce proceedings, the e-mail messages that people send and the Web sites they view can and will be used in court. The people who unearth this data and make it usable in the courtroom

UK businesses are calling for a dedicated national police unit to deal with the growing computer crime threat posed by hackers and international gangs of criminals. Organisations must currently report any attacks on their network or data to local police

The use of appropriate standards and controls is essential during forensic analyses if the resulting conclusions are to be considered scientific and used for prosecutorial purposes. No forensic examiner can rightly state that he or she provided quality analytical results

The practice of Reverse Engineering of computer programs has grown out of its obscure and nefarious origins and entered the realm of Computer Forensics. On an increasing basis Computer Forensic Examiners are encountering critical evidence of sophisticated cyber crimes contained

Approximately two years ago, the Indiana State Police instituted a unique program in which examiners conduct on scene computer forensics. The goal of the Computer Forensics Field Triage program is to utilize departmental resources efficiently to improve cyber crime investigations

WHAT’S NEW? * Ability to extract e-mail messages and attachments from AOL PFC files. (forensic license only) Note that if these files have no extension, only a signature check will identify them as PFC files. * Can now extract embedded

The New Britain police department’s computer crime expert was stumped. The state police’s lab couldn’t help. Even the FBI didn’t have the answer. But Lt. James Wardwell kept searching, trying to find some way to infiltrate a stack of erased

The second annual New Zealand Computer Crime and Security Survey has revealed New Zealand organisations are ill-equipped to preserve computer forensic evidence. The University of Otago conducted survey – which aims to raise the level of security awareness and determine

Computer forensics investigator Bryan Sartin says court systems are ill-equipped to understand e-crime, even at a basic level. Here he describes a recent case of a hacker who stole customer information from a retail system. The case didn’t play out

Guidance Software, Inc. today announced the availability of its introductory level mobile phone forensic course. The hands-on course introduces investigators to Neutrino™, the company’s mobile phone acquisition tool, and demonstrates how the product is used to perform comprehensive analysis and

If you thought Germany’s new computer crime laws were strict, try posting an offensive comment on the Web in Thailand. According to the independent newspaper Prachatai, at least one person is being detained in the Bangkok Remand Prison for crimes

Instant messaging is an increasingly popular medium that’s sometimes an important link in the prosecution’s case. As with every new communication tool, it brings new challenges for criminal procedure. This multilayered technology provides the convenience of e-mail coupled with the

The Internet can often seem like a threatening place where users are susceptible to fraud, identity theft and sexual predators, but law enforcement at all levels of government have been attempting to change that perception. “At the turn of the