Systems Technology Consultants Ltd – SYTECH | Digital Forensic Experts – www.sytech-consultants.com

Police probe school cyber bullying

Quote

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Simon Lang

GEELONG police are being called to investigate cases of cyber bullying among school-aged children just months after the term became a chargeable offence.

Inspector Gary Thompson confirmed police were currently investigating “several” online bullying cases.

It follows news Geelong police are being called to schools weekly to educate children as young as five on the dangers of cyber bullying.

Leading Senior Constable Robbie Noggler said he had visited more than 20 schools this year in an attempt to tell kids how to avoid trouble online.

He said students at both primary and secondary schools needed to know the legal implications now involved in cyber crime.

“In June 2011 legislation came in to put cyber bullying under stalking provisions so it’s now a chargeable offence. That means any form of online bullying or impersonation can come to our attention,” he said.

“We’re trying to enlighten kids that something they may see as silly is actually an offence. It’s not just the immediate slap on the wrist these offences can affect job opportunities and the ability to travel when kids are older.”

Sen-Constable Noggler said online threats became more specific in older kids and adults but young children weren’t immune.

“You hear these tragic stories about people taking their owns lives because nothing’s been done to help them out, so for young kids to be exposed to this sort of mental trauma is definitely a concern,” he said.

“The message I leave with kids is if they only remember one point they must tell someone what’s going on, be it a parent or teacher or friend, because we can’t do anything to help unless we are aware.”

Fyans Park Primary School teacher Carolyn Whitmore said the school would now offer the program to children from prep to grade 4 following successful sessions in the older grades.

She said the school would also investigate running a talk for parents to help protect students in cyber space.

“Robbie was referred to us from another school who loved the program and it’s been used to further help students understand the implications of not being cyber-safe,” Ms Whitmore said.

“Children are aware of these things because it’s very current and brought to their attention through the media so they want to ask questions.”

State Parliament has also announced a public inquiry into sexting. The law reform committee will consider the suitability of current penalties around the creation and sharing of sexually explicit messages and images via the internet, mobile phone and other electronic devices.

Police probe school cyber bullying | Geelong, VIC, Australia.

Catching paedophiles using image-processing technology

Quote

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Simon Lang

When the police catch up with paedophiles, they can be sure of one thing – they will find lots and lots of images and videos.

A signature trait they share is the collecting and curating of a large store of images of children being sexually and physically abused.

The only positive aspect of these horrific caches is that they help police officers build a case. The downside is that it can take time to process the images because the collections can be huge. Some abusers hoard millions of them.

“Image triage is very important and it’s getting harder because storage is so cheap,” said Mick Moran, co-ordinator of the crimes against children unit at Interpol.

Analysing all the images was vital, he said, not just to ensure that the person caught was properly charged.

“The material has to be sorted through with a view to finding images that have not been seen before and require immediate attention.”

That novel material could reveal victims unknown to the police or lead to other abusers.

“60-90% of abuse takes place within the home or family circle,” said Mr Moran. “Once you find the child, you find the abuser.”

Find and filter

Technology is a big help when processing the mountains of images. At Interpol the sorting process is aided by a database made up of millions of images seized from abusers. That contains the raw images and each one has been processed to produce a mathematical summary known as a “hash”.

59972929 hiddencacheofimages Catching paedophiles using image processing technology

The caches of images built up by paedophiles can be extensive

The first stage of triage typically involves putting freshly seized images through the same hashing process. Old are then compared with new to reveal those not see before.

That is the theory. In practice it often proved to be a lot more complicated, said Fred Langford, director of technology at the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation.

“As soon as someone changes the size or flips it on its side it changes the hash,” said Mr Langford.

That was a bigger problem that it might otherwise be, he said, because images of child sexual abuse were so widely copied.

“Start Quote

This is a social issue not a police issue”

Mick MoranInterpol

“We see the same images over and over again,” said Mr Langford. Websites selling images of abuse often added a logo, he said, which typically changed the mathematical summary or hash .

Many paedophiles who swapped and shared material knew to make tiny changes, such as altering the colour of a single pixel or altering a file extension, to stop the images being caught by scanning systems, said Alex De Joode, chief security officer at hosting firm Leaseweb.

Like many other web firms, Leaseweb processes images being uploaded to ensure they are not known illegal images.

“We host a lot of user-generated content sites,” said Mr De Joode. “These sites are being abused by people uploading child porn and it’s something that our customers do not want.”

Abusers needed places to post images, he said, because many of the other places they met online were text-only chat forums where only links, rather than images, could be posted.

Eyes right

Lists of hashes help the sorting process but their usefulness is limited by the changes regularly made to images.

An image-processing tool that can ignore those tiny changes and work out what other images it resembles has been developed by Microsoft researchers.

Instead of a hash, this creates what its creators call a “signature” for each image. Unlike a hash this signature does not change when an image is altered or manipulated.

“No matter how much it’s changed, the underlying properties of the image’s signature remain the same,” said Stuart Aston, chief security officer at Microsoft UK.

Called PhotoDNA, the tool was developed to keep an eye on images uploaded to other Microsoft services and Facebook and now, with the help of Swedish firm NetClean, is being given to police forces to help them categorise images.

NetClean has a long history of helping police forces process images in a bid to spot illegal material and catch abusers.

59972931 magnifyingfingerprint Catching paedophiles using image processing technology

Human experience can prove better than technology in some investigations

Mr Langford said PhotoDNA would help with some aspects of image classification, and could speed up image triage so investigators had more time to spend on other tasks.

But, he said, there were times when there was no substitute for people looking through images to see what they could find.

“The most effective tool is experience,” said Mr Langford. “Analysts are skilled at spotting things that the software might not be able to recognise.”

Mr Moran from Interpol agreed, saying it was often only because experienced investigators worked on images that lives were saved and children were rescued from abuse.

When they look at images, investigators look for clues that reveal where they were taken. Food packets, plug sockets and household objects can all help police home in on a location.

In one recent case, said Mr Moran, the key object was a doll held by a child. Interpol shared the images – seized in Boston – via its connections to police forces in Europe because it was clear they pointed to a group of abusers never seen before.

The image was seen by a Dutch police officer who knew that the doll was only available in Holland. It was shown on the Dutch version of Crimewatch, with anyone who knew the child asked to come forward.

The shocked parents of the child contacted police, wondering where the image came from. Investigation showed that the image was taken at the child’s creche. The child was one of 87 being abused after being left for the day at one of several creches in Amsterdam.

The investigation helped police arrest 14 people who had either abused the children or taken photographs and shared them.

Technology and people can work together to catch abusers, said Mr Moran, but it would take more to stop the online trade altogether.

“As a result of the internet, latent paedophiles and people who could not care less are being exposed to child abuse material,” he said. “Because of that, more children are being abused to produce material that can be put online to feed the desire for more material.”

“We cannot police our way out of this,” he said. “This is a social issue not a police issue.”

BBC News – Catching paedophiles using image-processing technology.

Swallowed memory card data likely salvageable

Quote

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Simon Lang

A memory card police believe has spent days in the belly of a B.C. hang glider may still contain salvageable evidence, according to an expert in digital forensics.

David McKay, program coordinator for Blackstone Forensics, says he’s seen digital data extracted from cards that were stomped on, soaked and worse.

“These devices, which are solid state devices, they use a form of non-volatile memory and are very stable,” McKay said. “They’ve been frozen, dropped in puddles and left for days, they’ve been submerged in water and it’s been possible to pull information.”

Fifty-year-old William Jonathan Orders allegedly swallowed a card from the Drift camera mounted on his tandem glider after passenger Lenami Godinez-Avila detached mid-flight and fell to her death on Saturday.

Mounties believe the card may contain video footage that will shed light on the cause of the tragic accident, and revealed Wednesday that X-rays reveal an object similar to it remains in his body.

McKay said he’s never seen a memory card that spent almost a week in a human digestive system, but it’s likely that at least portions of the video or images stored on the device will be retrievable.

How long the card potentially spent in the stomach, where it would be exposed to corrosive acids, will factor in to how much information is useable, he added.

“Once it makes it to the digestive tract, much of the moisture is absorbed,” McKay said.

“At the end of the day, this will be a very interesting case study.”

The allegedly consumed card is either a pill-sized microSD card or a stamp-sized standard SD card, depending on Orders’ camera model.

Godinez-Avila received her hang gliding trip as an anniversary present from her boyfriend, who was filming the experience before she plummeted 300 metres to her death. She was 27 years old.

The Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada has suspended Orders’ instructor certification pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

The pilot has 16 years’ experience as a glider and is the owner-operator of Vancouver Hang Gliding.

He has been in custody since the accident and charged with obstructing justice for allegedly swallowing the memory device, with a bail hearing scheduled for Friday in Chilliwack provincial court.

Swallowed memory card data likely salvageable: expert | CTV British Columbia.

Lockheed Martin to Assist Department of Defense in Fight Against Growing Threat: Cyber Crime

Quote

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Simon Lang

Already one of the U.S. Department of Defense’s most-experienced providers of solutions for defeating military threats, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) will now team with the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) to thwart another type of enemy — cyber criminals.

The company has been selected to deliver a full range of technical, functional, and managerial support to the DC3, which provides vital assistance in the investigation of criminal, counterintelligence and counterterrorism matters, as well as cyber security support to Defense Industrial Base partners. The work will be conducted through a task order awarded by the General Services Administration’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center under the General Services Administration Alliant Contract. The task order has a ceiling value of $454 million if all options are exercised.

“DC3 faces compelling requirements for superior digital forensics and multi-media lab services, related research, development, test and evaluation, and cyber analytics,” said Steve Shirley, executive director of the Center in Linthicum, Md. “Responsive and capable industry mission partners are a significant feature of DC3’s operations. We’re looking forward to a smooth transition as Lockheed Martin becomes a key mission partner, and we’re confident the company’s capabilities will help us succeed in our future challenges.”

The Lockheed Martin team will bring to DC3 its extensive cyber analysis expertise gained through its role in protecting some of the most-sensitive information networks in the world. As the leading IT provider for the federal government 17 consecutive years (Washington Technology), Lockheed Martin also has executed many successful large contract transitions.

“As DC3’s new mission partner, we’re excited to assist the Center as it expands and advances its technical capabilities in support of DoD criminal investigative, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism organizations, and to help safeguard the networks of Defense Industrial Base partners,” said Gerry Fasano, president of Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions-Defense (IS&GS-Defense).

Because of its size and importance, the DoD is targeted by cyber criminals ranging from terrorists to spies to identity thieves. “Our industry team provides solutions to address a cyber threat environment that is highly dynamic and growing in volume and complexity,” said Dr. Rohan Amin, DC3 program director for Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. “We recognize the uniqueness of the mission and look forward to working with DC3 to address these future challenges.”

Lockheed Martin’s scope of work will include digital and multimedia forensics examination, analysis, research, development, test and evaluation, information technology and cyber analytical services. The primary work will be conducted at DC3 headquarters in Linthicum, Md.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.

Lockheed Martin · Lockheed Martin to Assist Department of Defense in Fight Against Growing Threat: Cyber Crime.

Child ID theft epidemic continues to spread

Quote

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Simon Lang

The epidemic of child identity theft revealed last year is continuing to grow. 10.7% of the nearly 27,000 children in the study are victims of identity theft, 35 times higher than adults in the same population, according to AllClear ID.

The new data also showed that identity theft is increasing most quickly in young children. In fact, identity theft among children ages 5 and under grew 105% since last year – the highest growth rate of any age group – while 26% of children targeted were between the ages of six and ten, a 34% increase.

Young children are optimal targets for criminals, because they have yet to apply for anything to establish a credit history, so their identities are clean slates and thieves can use their information without being detected for many years. Thieves can easily attach a different name to a child’s Social Security number and use it to buy houses and cars, take out credit cards and lines of credit.

When the child, as a young adult, attempts to use his or her Social Security number for the first time to get a loan or job, the thief’s bogus information and negative credit history will show up and cause serious problems.

Based on extensive scans for nearly 27,000 children, the reported titled Child Identity Theft 2012, is a quantitative analysis of the results. There are no survey results included, as this report reflects the actual theft that children and their families have experienced.

The report includes a detailed analysis along with stories of real victims and the serious financial and emotional impact child identity theft has had on their families. Key takeaways from the report include:

Criminals are targeting the youngest children. 15% of victims were five years old and younger, an increase of 105% over the 2011 findings.
26% of victims were six to ten years old, a growth of 34% from the 2011 report. This stands in sharp contrast to the rates for children over eleven that remained flat or decreased.
10.7% (2,875) of the minors included in the report had someone else using their Social Security numbers. This is an increase of .5% from the 10.2% rate reported in the 2011 report.
The rate of identity theft for children was 35 times higher than the rate for adults in the same population.
$1.5 million was the largest fraud committed. This was against a 19 year old girl whose Social Security number had been used since she was nine years old.
The overall number of suspects fraudulently using Social Security numbers per child increased by 15% this year over the previous year’s report. One child had six suspects using her Social Security number.

“It’s important for parents to understand that child ID theft is a real and growing trend,” said Bo Holland, CEO of AllClear ID. “Rather than letting this trend continue, consumers – parents especially – should take the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of their child’s livelihood. We have the technology, at AllClear ID, to help parents do just that.”

There are steps that parents can take to ensure their child’s information is not being used fraudulently, including:

Use free solutions designed specifically to detect child identity theft
Guard their Social Security number
Start scanning your child’s Social Security number when they are young
Go beyond the credit report. Our data showed that 41% of the fraudulent activity was occurring at sources other than the credit bureaus
Talk to your child about online privacy and information security
Use social media with caution.

Child ID theft epidemic continues to spread.

Spammers using social media instead of email

Quote

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Simon Lang

According to security experts, social networking sites, rather than email, are now the most favored platform for spammers to peddle their unsolicited links, as reported by Bloomberg.

This is partially due to the fact that email spam filters have become so effective that tens of billions of spam messages are now being diverted to social media sites instead, according to Dan Olds of Gabriel Consulting Group.

Mark Risher, chief executive officer of anti-spam software provider Impermium, said, “Social spam can be a lot more effective than e-mail spam. We see a lot of it, and we see it increasing. The bad guys are taking to this with great abandon.”

According to Risher, as many as 40% of the accounts on social networking sites are actually owned as spammers, and approximately 8% of all messages sent via those sites are spam. This is approximately twice the volume of spam messages sent just six months ago.

Facebook and Twitter have even resorted to suing advertising networks that are accused of running scams on fraudulent pages, which can lead to users canceling their accounts after poor experiences with the social networks.

And while bigger social networks like Facebook and Twitter have the experience and resources to detect and combat spammers more effectively, newer sites like Pinterest might not be quite so prepared. On Pinterest, spam links can be hidden in the embedded links attached to photos, which can be difficult for users to notice. The links could then potentially take users to pornography websites or a virus download. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution in the endless battle against spam.

Spammers using social media instead of email – Neowin.

Your Say

“Start Quote