What we did during out masters was to get another student to perform a crime on a computer. You can find another person on your course, tell them you want them to commit crime x on a computer and that the computer will be seized at some random time between Y-Z and they should cover their tracks as best they can (without prior knowledge of the seizure).
Then you take the computer into evidence as if it were a case and image it, and work on it.
This was a very fun experience for me, and being able to find out what they did and prove they committed the crime is mighty satisfying!
What we did during out masters was to get another student to perform a crime on a computer. You can find another person on your course, tell them you want them to commit crime x on a computer and that the computer will be seized at some random time between Y-Z and they should cover their tracks as best they can (without prior knowledge of the seizure).
Then you take the computer into evidence as if it were a case and image it, and work on it.
This was a very fun experience for me, and being able to find out what they did and prove they committed the crime is mighty satisfying!
What we did during out masters was to get another student to perform a crime on a computer. You can find another person on your course, tell them you want them to commit crime x on a computer and that the computer will be seized at some random time between Y-Z and they should cover their tracks as best they can (without prior knowledge of the seizure).
Then you take the computer into evidence as if it were a case and image it, and work on it.
This was a very fun experience for me, and being able to find out what they did and prove they committed the crime is mighty satisfying!
Depending on the exact nature of the "crime x" that you convinced the other student to commit, this could lead to very serious consequences for both you (subornation) and the other student.
It is not something to take "lightly" if an actual crime is committed, and on the other hand if it is a "simulated one" there are still either the issue that the resulting image is somehow "fabricated" OR that you may anyway (if the used PC is not "brand new" or if by mistake the other student forgets temporarily that he is in a "virtual" environment) get to learn something of the private life (habits, sexual or political/religious preferences, etc.) of the other student that you shouldn't really get to know.
No, not really an approach I would personally advise ( , unless some very strict compliance protocols are agreed upon and implemented in the experiment.
jaclaz
Maybe he meant "crime" not, crime )
I have done something similar for studies where the "crime" was trafficking illegal pictures of meerkats )
So to simulate an offender looking for offensive photographs and videos you simply replace the illegal content with something not illegal, then proceed as if it was indeed a crime.
Look for pictures/videos of meerkats (or what ever), google search etc etc. The go about the non technical ways of covering your tracks (delete temp files, internet history etc) and then you find the evidence of "meerkat" abuse as it were. P
Maybe he meant "crime" not, crime )
I have done something similar for studies where the "crime" was trafficking illegal pictures of meerkats )
Yep, but that would fall for the "fabricated" one, and specifically "badly" fabricated one.
I mean, basically you take someone who NEVER dealt with contraband images of meerkats and tell him to do what he thinks a professional meerkat contraband image dealer with do both as means of getting/distributing the images (and possibly send/get payment for them) and as means of deleting/covering his/her traces.
A nice exercise, indeed, but very unlikely (probably) like how a real meerkat aficionado would actually do (in his/her own perverted mind wink ).
jaclaz
Hi
Just a thought but I am currently playing with the Strawberry Pi that is becoming more popular, especially in an educational environment, and it may be that something along the lines of a Forensic examination of, perhaps, the Internet Artifacts that are available from one of these devices may be a good idea, especially if you do one for all the different OS and Browsers that are available for them
As far as I am aware there is little or no previous information about examining these things so you may get credit for the uniquness of your project if nothing else, and typically you will only have to do a 4 or 8 GB SD Card so there are no large evidence files to trail through.
If you are at Leeds Uni I suspect one of your tutors will be Emlyn Butterfield and I would strongly suggest you sit down with him and discuss the way you should go. He is a very knowledgable and approachable man.
Best of Luck.
Hey mark thanks for your suggestion that sounds rather interesting im guessing your referring to the raspberry pi? or is the strawberry one something different? I'm going to go find him now and have a chat, i submitted my project contract already but was not happy with my choice of project, which was comparing artefacts found on gaming consoles. This idea sounds much more interesting and current to research.
Thank you.
Hi Mate
You are of course right it is a Raspberry Pi computer and not a strawberry pie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regards and Good luck with the project, whatever it is
Mark J
A nice exercise, indeed, but very unlikely (probably) like how a real meerkat aficionado would actually do (in his/her own perverted mind wink ).
jaclaz
Actually Jaz, in my experience people who view that content rarely if ever take any steps to hide what they are doing. More often that not the content is in neatly organised folders with identifying names of the content, google history is not cleared and no attempt to hide the internet usage or chat logs has been made.
A few made cursory attempts to cover their tracks such as delete temp folder and internet history, and it was a rare beast indeed that used encryption or any sophisticated scrubbing software to hide what they were doing.
)
Actually Jaz, in my experience people who view that content rarely if ever take any steps to hide what they are doing. More often that not the content is in neatly organised folders with identifying names of the content, google history is not cleared and no attempt to hide the internet usage or chat logs has been made.
A few made cursory attempts to cover their tracks such as delete temp folder and internet history, and it was a rare beast indeed that used encryption or any sophisticated scrubbing software to hide what they were doing.
)
Well, then it makes very little sense to require a bachelor or master's degree to qualify people that will be paid to find what any smart kid could find in a little over 5 minutes, let alone make a research paper on how difficult it is.
That education money would be better spent in training the future investigators in bearing what they can see, something that I presume is the really difficult part for someone that has to deal with images of violence or torture (on children or adults).
See also
http//www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2329/
I mean, IF "real world" is so "easy" (the purely "technical part"), there is no sense in doing research work on the - allow me - trivial ways you described as being used by the "bad guys" for hiding contraband images/contents, sure, those can be replicated by *anyone*.
jaclaz