Harlan Carvey is a Windows security instructor who created his own 2-day, hands-on course in Windows incident response and forensic investigations. This book shares some of Carvey’s extensive knowledge and expertise in recognizing and responding to attacks on Windows systems in relatively plain English aimed at Windows system administrators. A CD is also included which contains a variety of tools including the PERL scripts described throughout the book…

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Technology Pathways, LLC has announced ProDiscover Incident Response 4.0, with support for Perl scripting and expanded capabilities for volatile data capture and analysis. With support for Perl version 5, information security and cyber-crime investigators can develop scripts to search and analyze electronic information and evidence. These Perl scripts can also provide repeatable processes for following strict investigation guidelines that are common for incident response and cyber-crime investigations.

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The call sounded like an advertisement for a credit card security plan. Someone in London had purchased a piece of Americana, a toy tractor from Ohio, with the credit card number of an Old Colony Road resident. Capital One credit card company called Wakefield police to report a case of identity theft. The criminal’s tool was the Internet, a growing challenge for law enforcement all over the world. Wakefield Police Department handled roughly 50 cybercrime cases last year, but Det. Sgt. Gerald Curran believes that many more cases go unreported…

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An expert witness in the MP3s4free.net music piracy case has conceded to the Federal Court in Sydney that log files seized in a 2003 raid did not show music actually being downloaded. During cross-examination and after long arguments about the admissibility of evidence, Gilbert & Tobin IT consultant Shane Pearson conceded that the seized log files could be skewed by certain factors including proxy caching and dial-up failure. Yesterday’s evidence included a demonstration of the web site by computer forensics expert John Thackray…

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Forensic computing techniques proved decisive in proving staff at a Buckinghamshire primary school had not been surfing for porn at work. The head of the school called in Disklabs, a computer forensics and data firm, last year when he discovered web folders with pornographic content on a PC used by pupils. The history of these folders suggested a creation date during lesson time and a modified date on a teacher-training day…

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Computer Forensic Services, LLC (CFS), has announced that managing partner Warren Kruse is scheduled to present at MIS Training Institute’s event “Cracking E-Fraud: How to Detect, Investigate, and Prevent Electronic Crime” held from June 20-23 in Boston, MA. An internationally recognized data forensics expert and current president of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA), Kruse is slated to offer the following presentations during the event:

* Understanding Software Forensic Tools, June 22nd, 8:45 am to 10:00 am * Handling Evidence in E-Fraud Investigations, June 22nd, 10:10 am to 11:20 am * Keynote Panel: Catching the Culprits of Cyber Fraud: Forensic Innovators and Pacesetting Organizations, June 22nd, 4:10 pm to 5:15 pm, * Understanding the Investigative Process from A to Z, June 23rd, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

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UK Police have arrested a 21-year-old man they suspect of running a phishing scam that targeted customers of online bank Smile. The unnamed man has been released on bail while a specialist data forensics team examines computer equipment that was seized from his home in Blackpool, according to antivirus firm Sophos.

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Gavin Hyde-Blake, the manager of IT forensics at Carratu International, the corporate investigation company, offers a crumb of comfort to besieged corporates. “Most hackers are lazy,” he says. “Make their life difficult and most will walk away.”

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You can dust for fingerprints after a robbery, but you wouldn’t dust a hard drive after a cybercrime. That’s where computer forensics comes in. It helps law enforcement agents copy and analyze information stored on hard drives and devices such as cell phones and BlackBerrys. One of the newest computer forensics systems on the market is the portable RoadMASSter II from Intelligent Computer Solutions. It looks like a thick metal briefcase on wheels and opens to reveal a keyboard, 15-inch thin-film transistor color LCD display and data-copying devices…

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Crime scene investigators for the Warner Robins Police Department (US) have a lot of the crime-fighting gadgets that actors do on the popular CSI television shows. And there are other similarities between what real-life CSI investigators do and what’s portrayed on TV. But there also are some key differences. Lt. John Lanneau, who heads the CSI division for the Warner Robins Police Department, said his team, like TV, employs the use of expensive tools to gather evidence – he has $10,000 worth of computer forensics equipment and a specialized CSI investigator trained to find evidence hidden in a computer hard drive…

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Andrew Clark, director and co-founder of Inforenz, spends much of his time as an expert forensics witness for the UK government, banks, and MNCs. He notes that there are signs that computer-based crimes are becoming the province of international organised crime syndicates. He cautions if that spiralled out of control, the effect of computer based crime could seriously damage the critical infrastructure and trading situation of nation states.

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Police and prosecutors are fashioning a new weapon in their arsenal against criminals: digital evidence. The sight of hard drives, Internet files and e-mails as courtroom evidence is increasingly common. “Digital evidence is becoming a feature of most criminal cases,” said Susan Brenner, professor of law and technology at the University of Dayton School of Law, in an e-mail response for this article. “Everything is moving in this direction.” Digital evidence may play a significant role in the trial of pop superstar Michael Jackson on charges of child molestation…

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The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) seized hundreds of computers and around 60T bytes of data as part of an investigation into how details of the U.S. invasion plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom were leaked to The New York Times, a DOD official said. The investigation ended in 2003 without finding the source of the leak. However, it has prompted changes within the department, which is developing new software tools and investigative strategies for computer crime cases that involve large amounts of data, said Lt. Col Ken Zatyko, director of the DOD’s Computer Forensics Laboratory.

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A senior UK high-tech crime buster has warned that his investigations are being severely hampered by a lack of money and has said funding could still be pared down further to the point that police units such as his become untenable. Speaking at the Computer and Internet Crime Conference in London, DC Tony Noble from Surrey Police Computer Crime Unit said many reported incidents of cybercrime, such as hacking or data theft from within a company, don’t get investigated due to “an accountancy culture” in the police force.

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Police and major internet companies around the world have launched a website on which children can report their suspicions about the activities of possible paedophiles. Microsoft and AOL will put a link on their websites to the Virtual Global Task Force (VGTF), which is run by international law enforcement agencies and where police officers will be able to gather evidence. Vodafone and BT have joined the UK’s National Crime Squad (NCS) as partner agencies.

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A video game endorsed by the Ontario government and its provincial police will turn elementary school students into computer forensics experts in order to teach them about the dangers of the Internet. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and the Attorney General late last week launched CyberCops, a software program that will be deployed in Ontario Grade 7 and Grade 8 classrooms this fall. Students will play the games in groups and will be directed by teachers trained in its use, officials said.

More (ITBusiness.ca)