Commodore 64 Confuses Austrian Police

toomanyairmiles writes, "It seems that Wolfgang Priklopil, the communications technician who kidnapped Austrian pre-teen Natascha Kampusch, relied on a Commodore 64 as his primary machine. Interestingly this is presenting some problems to the Austrian computer forensics people. Major General Gerhard Lang of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau told reporters it would 'complicate investigators' efforts' and would be difficult to transfer the files to modern computers 'without loss.' Could this be the latest in the criminal world's security strategy? Can we expect to see Spectrums, Archimedes, and Atari STs turning up in police investigations soon?"

Comments

Why go that far?

[Locke2005]

Any box that doesn't run Windows confuses most investigators. Yep, all their tools are Windows-specific.

Re:Why go that far?

[iluvcapra]

Quickly becoming a meme:

Only a terrorist wouldn't use Windows.

Re:Question

[MyNameIsFred]

... but to say that it would be difficult to transfer files "without loss" is disingenuous at best...

I assume that Austrian law requires some sort of chain of custody for evidence similar to that required under American law. Thus, the transfer is probably difficult because they do not have "certified tools" for the transfer. In the US, it is my understanding that simply copying the files with the copy command is not sufficient. That defense lawyers can question how the transfer was made, whether the copy is an accurate representation of the original, etc. I presume similar problems under Austrian law.

missing the point

[dirtyhippie]

The article, and most of these comments, are missing the point. The point isn't that you can't get the data off the hard drive - the investigators aren't that stupid - it's that they can't get previoiusly deleted or overwritten files off the hard drive using their standard techniques, because there is no way to image both a drive and the magnetic clues that these folks use.

Re:Followup

[ShawnDoc]

It also points out one of the problems with purchasing DRM'd media files. Since you are locked into a certain format, what do you do when technology changes and you can't convert your media into the new format or the company behind the DRM folds and there's no way to port the authentication system to a new system? My parents dubbed their records onto tapes. And recently I've helped my mom convert records and her old tapes into MP3 format. Something that couldn't be done if DRM existed then.

Re:Question

[Arakageeta]

The guy kidnapped a little girl and kept her for 8 years. He's obviously a nut case. I don't think you can back his choice to use a Commodore 64 with reason.

Re:Followup

[johansalk]

What you do then is quite simple; you'll have to re-buy your media files, and I presume that's a reason why the companies seem to like it so much .

Re:Question

[radish]

Or you could just, you know, do what the rest of us do and dupe netflix discs with DVD Shrink. Considerably simpler, quicker, and produces much better results. Oh, and there's no DRM on a VHS tape - it would have to be called ARM.