Major Canadian hacker ring cracked

Canadian police have arrested 17 people suspected of running the country’s largest and most damaging hacker network. The Sûreté du Québec and Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested people in 12 locations in a co-ordinated series of dawn raids. The gang

Disk encryption may not be secure enough, new research finds

Computer scientists have discovered a novel way to bypass the encryption used in programs like Microsoft’s BitLocker and Apple’s FileVault and then view the contents of supposedly secure files. In a paper (PDF) published Thursday that could prompt a rethinking

Harbor Springs police go hi-tech

Early last year the Harbor Springs Police Department received grant money to purchase hardware and software to investigate digital crimes committed in Northern Michigan. Resident tech enthusiast at the department, officer Steve Timmons, was more than happy to take the

Searching Laptops at the US Border and In Airports

This month, the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), two civil liberties groups based in Northern California, filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to force the government to disclose its policies on

Secret printer ID codes may breach EU privacy laws

A little-noticed system that allows printed documents to be tracked by government agents has gotten the attention of the EU Commissioner for Justice Freedom and Security, who says the technology may violate EU human rights guarantees. The technology is baked

Crime fears as cheap PCs head for Africa

What if the plans to spread low-cost One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Intel Classmate computers to the developing world work? What if in a few years there are hundreds of millions of them out there? Many might applaud. But

Could computer forensics help your organisation?

Forensics is not yet a mainstream field and descriptions and definitions vary. Yet how do organisations integrate incident response, breach handling and forensic examination into a security strategy? That security strategy should be defined by policies and procedures to minimise

New niche for e-discovery: special masters

The increased use of electronic discovery has resulted in a new set of practitioners: e-discovery special masters. A special master is an officer of the court appointed to help with its proceedings, and may perform functions such as taking testimony

Digital Forensics – An Interview with Dr. Hany Farid

Digital Forensics. Think of that phrase. It could be the title of a new TV crime show. However, recently developed software by Dr. Hany Farid of Dartmouth College is far more serious than an hour of frivolous, sensationalist TV. In

Encrypted Laptop Poses Legal Dilemma

When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing CP. But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program. Now Boucher

Vector Trace – a hit with Hollywood and the FBI

In the new film “Untraceable,” FBI agents are desperate to track down a maniac who tortures people to death and broadcasts his crimes live over the Internet. To find the villain, the agents use the same Internet tools used by

German Police Creating LE Trojan

German cops are pushing ahead with controversial plans, yet to be legally approved, to develop “remote forensic software” – in other words, a law enforcement Trojan. Leaked documents outline proposals by German firm Digitask to develop software to intercept Skype

Al-Qaeda’s 007

The extraordinary story of the solitary computer geek in a Shepherds Bush bedsit who became the world’s most wanted cyber-jihadist…When specialist forensic science officers arrived, they found that Tsouli had been creating a website called YOUBOMBIT. A banner with the

Ignorance wrecking evidence

Evidence stored on computers and other electronic devices is being damaged or destroyed by ignorant staff and investigators. One of the “handful” of people in SA equipped to retrieve digital evidence, Jean Pierre du Plessis from forensic service provider Ferrier