Computer “agents” which can help fight global terrorism and organised crime are being developed by scientists at an Edinburgh university. Academics at Napier University are creating software programs which act as detectives – accessing other computers via the internet or wireless technology and seeking out signs of criminal activity. Dr Bill Buchanan, leader of the Distributed Systems research group in the institute’s School of Computing, is working with the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) to produce the software, which he says is more reliable and trustworthy than human investigators.
