How an Ex-Programmer Earns Extra Bucks in Computer Forensics

Gary Kessler, 52, is an associate professor of computer science at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt. Mr. Kessler has worked as a computer-forensics consultant on the side for the past five years. Computer forensics is the process of gathering evidence

USB sticks and cards with fingerprint readers easy to crack

Manufacturers of USB sticks and cards with fingerprint readers promise us that their data safes can only be opened with the right fingerprint. It turns out that an easy-to-find tool allows nosy parties to get around the protection in some

Identifying Manipulated Images

Photo-editing software gets more sophisticated all the time, allowing users to alter pictures in ways both fun and fraudulent. Last month, for example, a photo of Tibetan antelope roaming alongside a high-speed train was revealed to be a fake, according

Kansas City embraces computer forensics

Kansas City quickly is becoming a hub of computer forensics activity as accounting firms realize that taking a computer system apart can be just as profitable as putting one together. Computer forensics involves analyzing information available on computer hard drives

LuciData Cracks Encrypted Laptop

LuciData Inc., a leading provider of internal threat management, e-discovery and computer forensic investigative services and solutions, today announced that it has successfully cracked a laptop encrypted with Pointsec Full Disk Encryption on behalf of a corporate client. While encryption

McMurdie steps down as head of e-crime in UK

Talks to discuss funding a national e-crime unit will open next week, but the Metropolitan Police Force is set to lose its second head of its e-crime unit in six months. Detective chief inspector Charlie McMurdie will meet Home Office

Centralised UK police unit to lead e-crime fight

A new centralised police unit tasked with tackling IT crime is set to get the official go-ahead, according to a leading computer crime officer. Speaking at the SecureLondon conference, hosted by security certification firm ISC2 last week, detective sergeant Clive

Linux tool speeds up computer forensics for cops

Australian university students have developed a Linux-based data forensics tool to help police churn through a growing backlog of computer-related criminal investigations. The tool was developed by students from Edith Cowan University’s School of Computing and Information Sciences and will

Nato says cyber warfare poses as great a threat as a missile attack

Nato is treating the threat of cyber warfare as seriously as the risk of a missile strike, according to a senior official. A London conference was told that online espionage and internet-based terrorism now represent some of the gravest threats

Devon and Cornwall Police’s Online Investigation team

An office block on a Devon industrial estate is not the most likely place to find detectives at the forefront of tackling internet-related paedophile crime. But this is the home of Devon and Cornwall Police’s Force Online Investigation team, which

Why no united front on cyber crime?

The growing influence of serious and organised crime in cyberspace is the focus of representatives from business, finance, government and law enforcement agencies at next week’s sixth international e-Crime Congress in London. This year even shadow home secretary David Davis

VMWare Vulnerability

Security researchers have discovered a bug in VMware desktop virtualization applications that allows attackers to take complete control of the underlying PC, including the execution or modification of files on the host operating system. The vulnerability, which was unearthed by

How a computer forensic investigation works

Many stories have come to light lately about people getting caught using their computer for nefarious purposes. Possession of confidential business secrets, CP or spreadsheets to track gambling activities have gotten a wide variety of folks in hot water. How

Philippine police say computer crimes on the rise

Computer crimes reported to police are on the rise, the Philippine National Police said Saturday. According to a briefing paper on cyber crimes prepared by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, a total of 1,843 crimes involving computers were reported