Cyber crime lab goes online in Mass

As new technology changes the way we live, crime fighters are also taking steps to keep pace with the bad guys.

Today, Massachusetts is showing off a new lab. As NECN's Brad Puffer tells us, it's helping law enforcement follow high tech clues to solve crimes.

Dave Papargiris is head of the Cyber Crimes division at the Masschusett's Attorney General's office.

He's showing off a new lab designed to handle the increasing number of cases involving digital evidence.

“There's a lot of equipment for doing mobile phone, new phones are coming out monthly, we need to have enough tools to work with every phone that is coming out.” Papargiris says they work to assist District Attroney's across the state and offer free trainings to local police departments. All in an effort to respond more quickly.

“If we got a report of a missing child we could go right into that persons bedroom take their computer hard drive out start looking at who their were talking to who they were communicating with.” The Attorney General's office has gone from processing around 50 cases last year to more than 100 this year and they expect that number will only go up.

Martha Coakley: “Everything from cell phones to iPhones to Blackberry's to mobile computers and anything that stores information in a digital way.” Attorney General Martha Coakley says the new lab goes online Wednesday morning at a cost of almost 800-thousand dollars. Funding she says comes from grants, their own budget and the state.

“It's a major investment but in terms of what we need to do for solving crime and providing deterrence it is well worth it.” Investigators say they handle the evidence as carefully as DNA - checking evidence in and providing a static free environment to prevent any damaging shock The hope is to solve crimes faster but with strong evidence that will also convince a jury at trial.
this post is brought to you by: www.internetslife.com

Computer Forensics In Criminal Defence

There is a lot of coverage within the media about how digital forensics have been used within a court case to prosecute. However, within the British judicial system, someone is innocent until proven otherwise.
With this in mind, there are many ways in which criminal defence law firms can use digital forensics to defending a client. Digital forensics covers the use of mobile phones, computers
and even satellite navigation units – in short, any digital device. . All of these can help the accused prove their innocence if looked in to correctly.
Computer forensics has helped many cases, primarily for prosecution, but it can be used to help people prove they have not committed the crime they have been accused of.
With the help of digital and computer forensics specialists, there are many ways a case can be helped if digital evidence has been presented against the accused. There are many strict rules and regulations that must be followed to extract evidence properly. If these rules have not been followed the evidence can be deemed invalid.
Any extracted evidence should have been done so by an approved analyst to be deemed an admissible source. If this is proven not to be the case, then the evidence is worthless and other sources will need to be found to support the case.
Alongside these points there are other factors that decide whether evidence extracted is usable. By choosing a reputable computer forensics company, they will be able to provide answers to such questions and know whether the evidence provided has been found legitimately or not.
The digital finger-prints we leave in today’s society means anything and everything can potentially be traced back. With this in mind it is important to remember that although we can extract data vital to proving conviction – or innocence, there are still procedures that need to be followed.
If the guidelines are not followed, extracted data is invalid, so ensure where any case is presented the facts are checked, and the only people to do this are the digital forensic professionals.

Written by Jenny Pilley

Cyber Security

Security whether it is physical or virtual , is the primary concern of any organization. The proliferation of computer systems and network has created new situation where organizations, be it government or private, are becoming more and more relying on computers and network for day to day operations. This has resulted in a deep concern regarding the safety of information and infrastructure. Critical Infrastructure such as electricity, water supply , nuclear plants, financial institutions , etc. play an important role in economy and safety of the country. Any type of intrusions into such systems can jeopardize the safety of the country.
The wide spread use of computers and internet provides intruders an opportunity to sneak in and create havoc. There is a strong need to provide sufficient security to all computer systems and information residing in it.
Computer Security Institute (CSI) most of the computer security breaches are not reported. People keep quiet not to expose the vulnerability further. The CSI/FBI report Computer Crime and Security Survey 2006 shows alarming increase in cyber crimes. The key finding of the survey is
* Virus attacks are the major threat causing financial loss ( 74%)
* Percentage of organizations reporting intrusions have increased from 20 to 25 %
* Over 80% organizations conduct security audit.
It is a fact that most of the organizations don’t report the intrusions to avoid negative publicity it gets. One of the objective of this programme is to provide information and guidelines to protect computer systems against intrusions, data theft, etc. www.cyberkeralam.in