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UK Police Want Plug-In Computer Crime Detectors

Posted by timothy on from the type-I-errors-type-II-errors-and-bonus-privacy-invasion dept.

An anonymous reader writes "UK police are talking to private companies about using plug-in USB devices that can scour the hard drive of any device they are attached to, searching for evidence of illegal activity. The UK's Association of Chief Police Officers is considering using commercial devices that can perform targeted searches of text, pictures and computer code on hard drives, allowing untrained cops to detect anything from correspondence on stolen goods to child pornography. Police in the UK are desperate for a way of slashing the backlog of machines seized by the police in raids, with many forces having a backlog that will take a year to process." Maybe they shouldn't seize so many computers.

15 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. First among other things... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    this is probably something everybody should have, just to make sure they're in compliance.

  2. Should be easy in the UK. by BitterOak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This should be easy to accomplish in the UK where citizens are required by law to turn over all their encryption keys or face jail time. It would be harder to make it work in the US, where people can use encryption. I suppose the Brits could employ TrueCrypt hidden volumes to keep their stuff private.

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    1. Re:Should be easy in the UK. by twidarkling · · Score: 5, Funny

      We will wake up one day and find that keys to our doors only work from the outside.

      I dunno about you, but my locks already only take keys on the outside. See, on the inside, I have this nice little knob I can use to lock the door without the key.

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    2. Re:Should be easy in the UK. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      How much time have you spent in jail?

    3. Re:Should be easy in the UK. by Allicorn · · Score: 5, Informative

      A little time eh? Failure to surrender your encryption keys to the UK authorities will net you two years.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Powers_Act

      And that's assuming that the act of trying to defend your individual sovreignty doesn't just make them trump up a whole bunch more charges to keep you out of the way for much longer since you're obviously in league with the terrorists/pedos/catholics.

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    4. Re:Should be easy in the UK. by computational+super · · Score: 5, Funny
      Failure to surrender your encryption keys to the UK authorities will net you two years.

      Well, that's what they'll sentence you to. You won't do nearly that much time. Once they tell the other inmates you're a pedo, they'll kill you after a week, tops, with the guards looking on approvingly. You'll be out in no time!

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    5. Re:Should be easy in the UK. by Ash+Vince · · Score: 5, Informative

      What happened was that out current Labour government jumped on board with the war on terror then got this bill through parliament without any real public debate about the contents under the guise of fighting terror. The vast majority of the British public have no idea this shite is on the books as the press all agreed not to cover the law in any depth before it was passed.

      Maybe the bill was D-noticed but we will never know since the press are not allowed to mention what is D-noticed and what is not.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Notice

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  3. Great... by Chabo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now instead of having trained forensic experts, we'll have common beat cops searching your computer.

    Attorney: How do you know he had illegal material on his computer?
    Officer: I pushed the button, and the computer told me to arrest him.

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    1. Re:Great... by DanTheStone · · Score: 5, Informative

      Funny you should mention that.

    2. Re:Great... by ve3id · · Score: 5, Informative

      This reminds me of another idiot device they gave to the British bobby: back in the 70's and 80's, there was a glut of illegal CB sets in England. They never legalised the use of 27MHz AM/SSB CBs and all the units sold were marked 'for export only' When they legalised CB, units that were approved could only transmit FM. Instead of overworking the radio inspectors, they gave bobbies on the beat a box that detected if a close transmitter was AM or FM, with two LEDs. The only problem was amateur radio operators can legally use AM and SSB (after all, they invented it!). One beat p.c. stopped a ham and asked him to talk in the mike, and, you guessed it, the illegal CB light lit up! Only when the amateur radio operator started cursing and swearing at the p.c. and getting red in the face did he consult another p.c. over the police radio who was a ham. This being the appropriate behaviour for a ham accused of being a CB'er, he let him go with an apology.

    3. Re:Great... by ve3id · · Score: 5, Interesting

      One principle of computer forensics is that if a computer is manipulated in any way, the evidence may be corrupted by such operation, and this could be used by defence attornies. Real computer forensics involves getting the computer powered down, removing the disk, setting it up in a test jig with write protect enabled, and reading the complete image from the disk onto a sterile environment for analysis. I don't think Mr. Plod will meet the test of admissibility into evidence! How is he going to prove to the court that the suspected data were not on the USB key to start with? If he has interfered with the computer in any way by plugging in a USB key, then the evidence is contaminated.

  4. Hmm by Co0Ps · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the UK Police got this idea while watching CSI.

  5. and the companion product.... by SethJohnson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anybody want to sponsor a contest to see who can write a USB driver that defeats this within the fewest lines of code?

    Seth

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  6. Microsoft already provides this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's called COFEE

    Q.What is COFEE?

    A.COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor) is a tool that helps simplify the very complex problem of gathering "live" computer evidence of cybercrime. It utilizes common forensics tools to aid officers at the scene in gathering important live evidence with a single USB device. It also provides reports in a simple format for later interpretation by computer experts, or as supportive evidence for computer investigations. This means that first-responder officers on the scene of a crime don't have to be computer forensic experts to capture live data for later analysis and that this critical information does not have to be lost once a computer is shut down to be taken for a traditional offline forensic analysis.

    Cops got even got their own web portal courtesy of Microsoft.

  7. Inspired! by shadowknot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Maybe they shouldn't seize so many computers.

    As someone working in Digital Forensics in the UK I can honestly say that this is the most inspired piece of wisdom I have seen in a long time. Our company has literally had computers that haven't been switched on in a decade that have been sitting in a garage or attic until the cops decide to seize them. This is good for business but bad for taxpayer expenditure and the expedient discovery of data of evidential worth. The process for seizure of computer equipment in police investigations is essentially "if it has an on-off switch then seize it". There needs to be some training given to officers seizing although I doubt they will as they are scared of the first case of non-seized items containing illicit material.