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FBI Adds Two Digital Forensic Labs
coondoggie sends us a story from NetworkWorld.com, as is his wont, this one on the FBI opening two new US Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories this week. In these laboratories examiners conduct a growing number of forensic examinations of digital media in support of the investigation and/or prosecution of a federal, state, or local crime. With the addition of the new facilities in Los Angeles and Albuquerque, the FBI will have 16 RCFLs nationwide. And they are needed: "During 2007, RCFL experts conducted 4,634 exams, processing 1,288 terabytes of information. A total of 76,581 digital devices were examined (the most popular media by far — CDs, coming in at 37,424; followed by hard disk drives at 17,378; floppy disks at 11,781; and DVDs at 4,374). The number of CDs, cell phones, and flash media devices examined doubled from the previous year."
Check out the huge DFLs on that one...
Slashdot raided ???
(Sorry my bad French) Je fais parler les Guignols de l'Info. Le pied, quoi.
I sincerely doubt there was 1288TB of data. Thats 284GB per article. If significant numbers of them were CDs or flash storage the numbers start looking fishey very fast.
Its hard to believe they examined that much storage capacity, let alone that much data.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
I'm sure they're locating to L.A. because it's a great place to fight kiddie porn, not because the MPAA and RIAA are headquartered there.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"During 2007, ROFL experts conducted 4,634 exams, processing 1,288 terabytes of information."
In the article they provide a short list of some high profile cases in which digital forensics played a role, but I'd like to see a rough breakdown on what type of investigations the FBI was scanning through 1,288 terabytes of information for.
I know it is routine now for investigators to seize computer equipment even in drug arrests, and I wonder how much taxpayer money is being wasted so federal agents can look through internet histories and MSN buddy lists.
I know it is routine now for investigators to seize computer equipment even in drug arrests, and I wonder how much taxpayer money is being wasted so federal agents can look through internet histories and MSN buddy lists.
Speaking of which, on my latest Equifax report there was a big bold scary headline that says FBI reports that identity theft is the largest growing crime.
Rather than using these vast resources to combat IP Infringment and "Think of the Children" issues, wouldn't it be better devoted to actually fighting what more people actually have their lives ruined by?
Some guy talking nasty in a chat room or a guy hocking pirated DVDs on the corner is no where as near as a threat to me and you as someone who is going to use the lax social security and credit system to open thousands of dollars worth of loan accounts in your name forever damaging your ability to buy a house, get a job, or even get a cell phone without a $1000 security deposit ever again.
The thing is most of these types of crimes are low tech and simply going through people's trash and mailbox so this multi-million dollar system of scanning data is worthless to the real threat the average joe faces.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
They are incompetent- completely and utterly incompetent. They know only what encase or another piece of forensic software tells them. If the disk blocks have been rewritten a couple of times- they're not going to find it. They're not going to break AES unless you've done something stupid and left the key laying around.
The real bitch of it is- these guys never get challenged properly- especially in child porn cases. (Thank John Walsh- Adam's Law is absurd). They can claim whatever they want and the defense is basically helpless. The defense is not allowed to have their own copy of the drive to do forensic analysis on. They have to do it at the FBI lab with FBI equipment and with FBI goons hanging over their shoulders. If the FBI finds "overwritten" evidence- there is no good way to challenge that. It's your word against theirs.
Chain of custody? HAH! I've watched these guys leave crime scenes with drives under their arms, I've watched them run programs and click around a system they suspect of containing illegal material. No effort made to prevent trojans or other programs from covering their tracks. No effort made to preserve the state of the system. It's laughable.
And no- I wasn't a target. I did "forensic" analysis for years and got sick of watching these people make a mockery of my profession. (I put forensic in quotes because there is nothing scientific about these analyses- they are the best guesses of someone who may or may not be even remotely qualified to give an opinion).
I have several certifications from comptia and other places (Sun, Cisco, MS), and I would not consider myself competent for this kind of forensic work. Got a nasty virus or think you've been hacked, format and re-install.
Best they could do is pass their educated guesses on to people who say them as fact in court.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
To resurrect lost White House emails, natch.
Remember that even if you're way above average skilled and interested, remember that most people are average. Would you quit your developer job because so many others suck at it? Would you quit your sysadmin job because most sysadmins are MSCE point-and-clickys? Would you quit your management job because most managers are PHBs? Smart people are a scarce resource, and in anything but niche fields in science you can be pretty sure to meet average people. Script kiddies might not be all that "cool" in the community but they do get things done with their tools they barely understand. Same with script cops, they're probably not "cool" with the people that eats bits and bytes for breakfast but they do get things done. At least as well as the rest of the police and society in general.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
There is no funds or agents available to check our food supply, not enough to examine bridges and buildings, not enough, apparently, to investigate crimes of politicians and arrest them.
But hey, we have Billions of $ for making sure that people don't pirate MP3 files.
I can understand that there are a lot more computers seized in drug raids. For one -- why are we still making drugs illegal? Are they dealing with identity theft or something that I as a citizen actually are about? Is kiddie p0rn going to magically appear on a drive if someone "wants to get this guy" no matter what? Please, I'm failing to trust the methods and goals of these government organizations anymore.
Who do these FBI people work for, again?
Oh, and have you found the people responsible for sending Anthrax to our elected representatives? -- it appears that there are only a few US labs and people that this could be tracked to, should be a piece of cake.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Gary Dourdan might be looking for a new job pretty soon.
Whitehouse Emails Were Lost Due to "Upgrade"
Suspicious DOJ edits of Wikipedia
davecb5620@gmail.com
During the recent Hans Reiser trial it was absolutely obvious that the "expert" examiner was completely lost when it came to discovering what was in Hans's Reiser4 file-system. All for want of a boot disk costing $0.89, and the ability to use the mount, find, and grep commands. It's laughable, and it's told be never ever to set foot in that jurisdiction as long as I live.