August 2012

This month starts busy, lots of cases often are submitted before the vacation starts. I also had several deadlines before August 1st, for example submission of abstracts for the AAFS conference in Washington DC next year.

Several students finished their thesis for their internship, unfortunately it is difficult to get a job in general forensic science now, however it van be easy in the field of forensic ICT, so currently I advise students to study informatics and forensics, since people are needed there at the moment.

I will present at two workshops at the European Academy of Forensic Science in the Hague in August, and one paper. I am looking forward to the conference, it is always nice to meet all colleagues. The ENFSI awards will also be granted at this meeting, where I am honored and thankful to receive the distinguished forensic scientist award. Also I had the honor to meet Queen Beatrix there.

Furthermore the ENFSI Forensic IT working group meeting in Rome in October seems to have many attendees registered. In September I am looking forward to be at the ENFSI Digital Imaging Working group in Brussels, however I will only be there for a part of the meeting. Also I am looking forward to the ICMedia conference in Brasilia where I will be one of the invited speakers in September.

Guest post by Nancy Parker

Gather Evidence to Prosecute Cyber-Criminals with Tech Forensics

Digital or tech forensics provide the digital evidence required to apprehend a hacker engaged
in criminal activity in the digital world. Without digital evidence, prosecution is not possible
and justice is unlikely. Tech forensics increases the possibility that justice will be served if the
hacker’s steps can be traced.

Corporations can take precautions. Proactive measures can be taken with the use of digital
forensics to prevent future breaches. Corporations can examine vulnerabilities and implement
safeguards to increase security in those areas.

For instance, wireless-based technology and infrastructure has grown in popularity in the last
10 years, but it is not without its vulnerabilities. Security threats are common with wireless
infrastructure. Wireless technology provides corporations with flexibility and convenience, but
it also opens the door for corruption, criminal activity and intentional misuse. Tech forensics can
help companies identify areas of weakness and close those doors for potential breaches while
maintaining convenience for the company.

The Future of Tech Forensics and Wireless Networks

More research in the field of tech forensics and wireless networks is required to prevent breaches
and gather adequate evidentiary support when breaches do occur. Currently, most companies
make use of wireless local area networks (WLANs). In an effort to reduce potential breaches,
researchers proposed a new wireless model in 2010 that incorporates a wireless drone with a
forensic server.

The wireless forensic model (WFM) monitors wireless network traffic at multiple access points
(APs). Wireless drones are employed to accomplish this goal. During monitoring, the drones
collect information about the network traffic and forward it to a centralized forensic server. The
server will store all acquired data for evaluation and future use. These systems were tested to
determine the efficacy and viability of the new model.

When evaluated on its ability to gather evidentiary information and store trails of digital
evidence relating to an attack, WFM proved its ability. The new model is capable of capturing
data generated even at the maximum speeds of a WLAN configuration. In most instances, data
integrity was maintained and details of the attacks were provided. When evaluated, researchers
found that the WFM model was capable of providing information about any attack that occurred.
This development marked the beginning of a new and more secure wireless network for
companies.

Prosecuting Cyber-Criminals

Without evidentiary support, cyber-criminals cannot be prosecuted and stopped. When
technology is put into place to gather evidence, the next phase of capturing cyber-criminals can
occur. DNA testing and analysis is another aspect of tech forensics that helps corporations gather
evidence to incarcerate guilty cyber-criminals. This technology is older and has been employed
since the 1980s. Newer technologies are expected to have a greater degree of precision.

Prior to implementing a strategy to catch cyber-criminals, every company should review the
basic principles of computer hacking forensic investigation. This ensures that companies
are gathering evidence in a “forensically sound manner.” When the information is captured
according to the principles, it can be used in a court of law to prosecute cyber-criminals. If
the evidence gathering procedures do not comply with the regulations for forensic evidence
gathering, the evidence may not be used in a court of law. Legal evidence is instrumental in
capturing cyber-criminals and gaining justice for victims.

How is Your Companies Tech Forensics Strategy?

More hacking incidents have occurred in the past two years than has historically occurred. Your
company’s tech forensics strategy is essential to survival. Talk with a professional that can
provide information about tech forensics solutions available to prevent breaches and capture
cyber-criminals.

Author Bio

Nancy Parker was a professional nanny and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like
health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny background check tips etc. You can reach her
@ nancy.parker015@ gmail.com

July 2012

Just updating my weblog in Istanbul at the airport since I just attended the International Association of Legal Medicine IALM 2012, where I presented a paper on face comparison as well as other body parts for forensic investigations and a poster on camera identification. It was a nice conference closed to the water in the Halic conference center, and good to see some good papers on CT and MRI imaging techniques for pathology. Where the main message is that these techniques are additional to the regular atopsy, since some causes of death can be determined by CT scans and angiography and others can only be determined by an atopsy. Also the AAFS had a special session within the conference which discussed the further implementation of the outcomes of the NAS-report.

Lately I received several messages of social network sites and even my phone provider that the database of password was hacked by cybercriminals. So it seems that either they did not detect it before, or they did not inform me, or perhaps indeed more sites are hacked. Having different passwords on different sites can help, however of course the best would be to have a 2-way protection as such, which some sites as gmail have implemented. 

Now it is also the time to submit abstracts for the American Academy of Forensic Science, since they should be in before August 1st. Also the Forensic IT Working group meeting in Rome, in October is also coming nearby.

the conference center of IALM

June 2012

The month May was a quiet month due to the number of holidays during this month, so time to read and make some new plan and working on casework as well as doing some presentations and giving some courses. Before the summer it appears the number of reviews being asked rises, so I did lots of effort in reading all interesting research. Also testing several new software approaches. Big data (analyzing thousands of terabytes for forensic investigation) seems to be one of the nice challenges, and it appears there is lots of interest. Also I have to testify as expert witness in June for a case.

Several conferences are approaches, such as the IALM 2012 in Istanbul, where I will present two papers (one in the section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and one poster. And I was very glad for the poster that I did not have to carry the poster, but that they have this digital system where I could upload my material to.

Also preparation for the working group meeting of the Forensic IT Working group in Rome, as well as the EAFS 2012 conference in The Hague, where I have one paper and two workshops that have been accepted.  And of course also working on the proposals for the conference of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Washington next year.

April 2012

This month busy with updating my website at http://forensic.to and new designs and contents to have less maintenance work. Also I had given a workshop on camera identification during the Digital Imaging School as well as given some training on new developments in digital evidence at the Police Academy in Apeldoorn. Many new developments and new possibilities, I also had some papers accepted for the IALM conference in Istanbul, where participants from 64 countries will attend, and which also has a special session for the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Currently some report and casework, and also some casework on camera identification, where we will test a method to interchange CCD's modules between different cameras for camera identification, also a topic one of the students worked on. So sometimes it appears that after a while I see that we did not publish research which might be of interest. I also updated some of the pages with previously unpublished results, for example on gait analysis.

Working on camera identification 

As a handling editor of Elseviers journal Digital Investigation I see often that people that work on casework do not have much time left on publishing their results. I also experience the same often, since the case reports are top priority, and other things can only be done when there is some time left. However it is also at the same time a question of organization of time. Writing short papers and submitting abstracts for conferences is however often a way to handle this. However I always like to work on different projects with universities and other institutions, as well as giving workshops and some lectures, so most often I will make some additional time for this.

March 2012

March gave new insights on the different topics I am working on. Sometimes solving issues is asking the right questions, often the how questions, since they give somewhat more insight and instead of all doing myself it works best in teams with people, and especially multidisciplinary solutions are the nicest to see developing.

I also prepared an abstract for IALM 2012 in Istanbul at the AAFS-session there, as well as of course the EAFS 2012 that NFI organizes in The Hague. Many new things to develop, and it also works to have good students working on the different topics. March was my last vacation (next will be October), since I had time to read books as well as forensic literature. The casework is also giving some nice work and new ideas for R&D projects.

Also for ENFSI we are preparing the Forensic IT Working group meeting in Rome from 24-26 October 2012. It should be a good event. Also I saw that Europol will have the European Cybercrime Center, so this will be very nice to collaborate further on with the vice chair who is from Europol.

At some presentations I heard some discussions on the understanding of Bayesian conclusions by lawyers. The question that always arises if the conclusion that is logically correct is understood well by the readers of the reports. It takes some time to understand the conclusions as such for most people. However I see that people who are used to these kind of conclusions appear to understand them. However one of the most challenging issues is to have a calibration of conclusions among the forensic scientists and the different disciplines especially if it is subjective or a form of opinion, since often there is not enough statistical data to make it objective.

With some budget cuts to come, the main challenge is to find the most efficient and objective solutions and keep improving methods.

February 2012

This month was an excellent month, since we did not have an backlogs in casework, and I had four new students that started on different projects with doing new validation studies on camera identification, as well as aging and determining influence of firmware. Also the heart beat continues as such. I also had an evening at a crime scene for making reference video for a forensic comparison. Even the projects were going well, and all was correctly timed.

This month the American Academy of Forensic Sciences had its meeting in Atlanta from 18-25 February. It was a well attended meeting with over 4000 people attending. I was one of the organizers two workshops, one on 2D and 3D morphometrics for the Forensic Science Foundation and another workshop on innovations in multimedia forensics. Both went well, and I was also invited for a presentation at the Interdisciplinary Workshop. It appeared all workshops were sold out, and it is always nice to learn from questions that are asked.

As a Director of the Digital and Multimedia Section, I was also attending the Board of Director meeting in Monday and Saturday. Overall the meeting gave many new ideas, and it was for me good to see that collaboration between the different disciplines in forensic science goes very well. Also I was elected for the editorial board of the Journal of Forensic Science, which I also like very much because it has many disciplines in forensic science combined.

Picture taken at the Aquarium in Atlanta at Presidents Reception on Thursday

Later on the scientific session of our section also went very well, with lots of attendance on the forensic aspects of Facebook. I also have papers on video carving and on heart beat detection from videos.