A round-up of this week’s digital forensics news and views:
Cars have become computers on wheels — and police have easy access to their data
The crime was horrific: In 2019, an Ohio man was accused of shooting his wife, her parents and her aunt in the head allegedly over mounting tensions with his in-laws over money and financial pressures created by expensive gifts he was buying for his longtime mistress. Prosecutors relied heavily on testimony from an expert at a little-known vehicle forensics company called the Berla Corporation to make their case…
13 CRIME FILES: Electronic Detection K9 sniffs out crime in Southern Arizona
It’s an important job that only a four-legged employee can do. And it’s led to multiple people being charged with crimes here in Southern Arizona. We’ve shown you countless scenes where law enforcement raids a home and finds items leading to an arrest for child exploitation. But to build a case, officers need to gather all the electronic evidence they can find…
Tear on evidence bag containing Caruana Galizia phone clone remains unexplained
Over a year since a forensic expert told court that the evidence bag containing a cloned copy of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s mobile phone had been torn open, it is still unknown who broke the seal…
Amazon Engineer Hacks $12 Million Crypto: Can DeFi Be Hacked?
A former Amazon engineer named Shakeeb Ahmed has entered a guilty plea to hacking and stealing cryptocurrency valued at over $12.3 million. This is a historic case that raises the stakes for crypto security and rewrites narratives surrounding digital crime…
Open-Source Linux Distribution for Blue Teaming
The digital forensics and incident response or DFIR landscape is constantly evolving, driven by technological advancements and new cyberthreats. Tsurugi, developed by Giovanni Rattaro, senior cybersecurity expert, and Marco Giorgi, senior DFIR analyst, is an open-source Linux distribution project designed for blue-teaming exercises…
DeFi’s billion-dollar secret: The insiders responsible for hacks
When a DeFi platform is hacked, suspicion often falls on insiders who are the most familiar with the smart contracts and security procedures and are, therefore, most likely to be able to devise an exploit. But are insiders really responsible for most DeFi hacks?…
US Justice Department Disrupts Prolific ALPHV/Blackcat Ransomware Variant
The Justice Department announced today a disruption campaign against the Blackcat ransomware group — also known as ALPHV or Noberus — that has targeted the computer networks of more than 1,000 victims and caused harm around the world since its inception, including networks that support U.S. critical infrastructure….
SEC disclosure rule for ‘material’ cybersecurity incidents goes into effect
Publicly traded companies are now required to disclose “material” cybersecurity incidents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, after the new agency rule went into effect Monday…
EU launches formal probe into potential misconduct by X
The European Commission has begun formal proceedings investigating whether X, formerly known as Twitter, has violated European rules on illegal content, content manipulation and data transparency…
