Prison officials sniffing out contraband cell phones.

Prison officials sniffing out contraband cell phones (CNN) -- In the black market of prison life, cell phones have become perhaps the hottest commodity. Now, Texas is among a growing number of state governments going after them.
Hundreds of contraband cell phones were found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008.

Hundreds of contraband cell phones were found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008.

Tiny, easy to hide and an unmonitored link for convicts to the outside world, cell phones are valuable contraband, fetching a greater asking price from convicts than some shipments of illegal drugs.

John Moriarty, inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that one phone can fetch as much as $2,000.

"It takes one crooked prison worker to populate a whole prison unit with them," he said.

More than 1,200 wireless phones sit in law enforcement evidence rooms, all found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008.

Moriarty is the investigator and bloodhound the state of Texas uses to trail the illegal traffic.

"These are not stupid people," he said of the coordinated efforts to slip phones into the prison and hide them. "There are a lot of hands in between and they all want a piece of the action."

Accomplices on the outside vary from family members, to friends to fellow criminals who buy or steal the phones and charge them with minutes.
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The contraband is then moved through an elaborate series of drop points and usually ferried into the walls of a prison by a guard or trustee -- an escape engineered in reverse. Finding the dirty prison employee is often the key.

"Some of these guys make next to nothing, so you can see how easy it could be to corrupt them," Moriarty said.

State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and the chair of the state senate's Criminal Justice Committee, became an ally of Moriarty's after one phone call in October.

He picked up a phone slip from his secretary and called the number on it -- only to realize he had returned a call to a death row inmate's cell phone.

The inmate, he said, was Richard Tabler -- a convicted double murderer who was sharing a wireless phone with nine other inmates.

"At first I thought it was a hoax," said Whitmire, who said he called the state justice board and "read them the riot act."

Whitmire is one of the sponsors of a bill in the Texas Legislature that would crack down on convicts caught with phones and allow prison systems to monitor and detect cell signals. It's en route to Gov. Rick Perry's desk after clearing both houses of the legislature this week.

Other efforts are under way at both the state and federal level.

In January, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, introduced legislation that would let prisons jam cell-phone signals within their walls.

Last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked the federal government for permission to do so in his state.

Prison officials in Arizona are training dogs to sniff out cell phones.

Obama calling for better security for computers

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is calling digital security a top priority, whether it's guarding the computer systems that keep the lights on in the city and direct airliners to the right runway or those protecting customers who pay their bills online.

To oversee an enhanced security system for the nation's computer networks, Obama is creating a "cyber czar" as part of a long-awaited plan stemming from a review he ordered shortly after taking office.

On Friday, Obama is expected to lay out broad goals for dealing with cyber threats while depicting the U.S. as a digital nation that needs to provide the education required to keep pace with technology and attract and retain a cyber-savvy work force. He also is expected to call for a new education campaign to raise public awareness of the challenges and threats related to cyber security.

The review, however, will not dictate how the government or private industry should tighten digital defenses. Critics say the cyber czar will not have sufficient budgetary and policy-making authority over securing computer systems and spending.

Officials familiar with the discussions say the cyber czar would be a special assistant to the president and would be supported by a new cyber directorate within the National Security Council. The cyber czar would also work with the National Economic Council, said the officials, who described the plan on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly released.

The special assistant title is not as high in the White House hierarchy as some officials sought. It would not give the czar direct, unfettered access to the president. Instead, the official would report to senior NSC officials — a situation many say will make it difficult to make major changes within the calcified federal bureaucracy.

Government and military officials have acknowledged that U.S. computer networks are constantly assailed by attacks and scans, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious probes and attacks. Some suggest that the actions at times are a form of cyber espionage from other nations, such as China.

Obama is not expected to announce who will get the job during Friday's unveiling of the review, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the selection process is ongoing. Other officials close to the issue say a handful of experts — both in and out of government — are under consideration.

BC student gets computers back

The Boston Globe
BC student gets computers back

By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff / May 27, 2009


State Police yesterday returned electronic devices belonging to a Boston College computer science student, days after a state Supreme Court judge threw out the search warrant under which the equipment had been seized.

Associate Justice Margot Botsford said police lacked sufficient evidence for a dorm room search.

Warrant tossed

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Margot Botsford on Thursday said that Boston College and Massachusetts State Police had insufficient evidence to search the dorm room of BC senior Riccardo Calixte. During the search, police confiscated a variety of electronic devices, including three laptop computers, two iPod music players, and two cellphones.

Police obtained a warrant to search Calixte's dorm after a roommate accused him of breaking into the school's computer network to change other students' grades, and of spreading a rumor via e-mail that the roommate is gay.

Camp counselor pleads guilty to child porn

A computer camp counselor and law student showed an autistic boy pornographic images.Click here for link.

At Mobile Forensics World 2009, Oxygen Software Will Unveil Its Newest Innovations

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 25, 2009 -- Oxygen Software® today announces that a team of Oxygen specialists, led by Oleg Fedorov, will participate in Mobile Forensics World 2009, where they will provide a one-day course "Advanced Techniques in Forensic Examination of Smartphones" for the registered attendees. The goal of the course is to teach mobile phone examiners and forensic analysts how to use the latest version of Oxygen Forensic Suite 2 and Oxygen Forensics for iPhone to extract the maximum of information from different models of phones, including iPhone. The course will be held at the Chicago Police Training Academy on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Judge Rules Dorm Room Search for Evidence of Prank Email Illegal

Student's Computers Were Seized Under Baseless Theory of Computer Hacking


Boston, MA - infoZine - A justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ordered police to return a laptop and other property seized from a Boston College computer science student's dorm room after finding there was no probable cause to search the room in the first place. The police were investigating whether the student sent hoax emails about another student.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Boston law firm Fish and Richardson are representing the computer science student, who was forced to complete much of the final month of the semester without his computer and phone. Boston College also shut off the student's network access in the wake of the now-rejected search.

"The judge correctly found that there was no legitimate reason to search and seize this student's property," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. "Our client was targeted because law enforcement was improperly suspicious of our client's computer skills and misunderstood computer crime laws. We're grateful that the court was able to see through the commonwealth's smokescreen and rectify this mistake."

In her order Thursday, Justice Margot Botsford rejected the commonwealth's theory that sending a hoax email might be unlawful under a Massachusetts computer crime statute barring the "unauthorized access" to a computer, concluding that there could be no violation of what was only a "hypothetical internet use policy." Thursday's decision now stands as the highest state court opinion to reject the dangerous theory that terms of service violations constitute computer "hacking" crimes. Justice Botsford further found that details offered by police as corroboration of other alleged offenses were insufficient and did not establish probable cause for the search.

"No one should be subjected to a search like this based on such flimsy theories and evidence," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "The Fourth Amendment flatly bars such fishing expeditions. Computer expertise is not a crime, and it was inappropriate for the commonwealth to employ such transparent scare tactics in an attempt to hide the fact that they had no case."

EFF had appealed the case to the Massachusetts Supreme Court with Fish & Richardson attorneys Adam Kessel, Lawrence Kolodney, and Tom Brown.

For the full order from Judge Botsford:
www.eff.org/files/SJCcalixteorder.pdf

Computer Expert Sues Leonard Street Law Firm for $775K

Sixty two terrabytes is maybe a hundred really big drives or 10K for the drives. Even if you double that, how do you charge $155k a month for data storage?

A computer expert claims in a lawsuit that Minneapolis law firm Leonard, Street and Deinard owes him $775,000 for storing digital evidence in a case involving the city’s two largest newspapers.

Mark Lanterman of Computer Forensic Services said he stored 62 terabytes of Star Tribune data, costing $155,000 a month, for five or six months before he deleted it, the Star Tribune reports. He claims the law firm still owes him $775,000 in unpaid bills.

The law firm’s reply to the suit says Lanterman has already been paid "handsomely" for every invoice he submitted on time, for a total of $854,000, the story says. The last invoice came in too late for the firm to bill the Star Tribune, ordered to pay expenses in the case, the court document said. The firm also says it didn’t have a signed contract with Lanterman.

Recording industry legal site...

Here is the link to a great resource about the recording industry lawsuits over IP.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/07/1627201

Report: Computer of ex-Miamisburg city manager wasn't misused

MIAMISBURG — Miamisburg officials today, May 18, announced that the forensic examination of the laptop computer previously assigned to former city manager William H. Nelson found nothing inappropriate or out of the ordinary.

The Miami Valley Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory completed the examination following the March arrest of Nelson on the charge of importuning.

Just prior to his arrest, Nelson on March 16 resigned as city manager.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s office on Oct. 3 of last year nabbed Nelson in an Internet sting in which Nelson thought he was meeting up with a 14-year old girl who was willing to give him oral sex.

Nelson pleaded guilty in April to one felony count of importuning.

Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Schneider on May 13 sentenced Nelson to three years probation, plus court costs. He also is required to register as a sex offender annually for the next 15 years.

Based on the forensic results, Miamisburg officials determined that no additional examination of the computer network servers is necessary and that the laptop will be returned to the city manager’s office for reassignment.

The city continues its national search for a new city manager and is accepting applications until June 17, with plans to have someone in place sometime this fall.

Assistant City Manager Dody Bruck is serving as acting city manager.

Police records reveal explicit details in Antioch child porn case

Apparently, the police gave the suspect enough notice that he was able to eliminate some evidence. The case might break down to prurient images of children versus actual CP. The suspect is a school teacher.

Green Bay (WFRV) – Green Bay police arrested a man for an alleged computer sex crime today.

Google reshoots Japan views after privacy complaints

Google is reshooting all of its Streetview footage after privacy complaints from the Japanese.

Computer forensics fighting recession-era data thieves

Click for link.

Asking a machine to spot threats human eyes miss

sweethearting n. the unauthorized giving away of merchandise without charge to a “sweetheart” customer (friend, family, fellow employee) by the fake scan or ring up of merchandise by the cashier.

Report: Hackers broke into FAA air traffic control systems

http://www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/ATC_Web_Report.pdf

The Lad Shed A Tear

A sad English forensics forecast.

Click for the link.

Purdue class treats hard drive as crime scene

Story about three day LE forensics class offered by Purdue. Has a funny picture of longhaired professor next to buzz job cop.

http://www.jconline.com/article/20090506/NEWS0501/905060341

Deaths on Caltrain.

Caltrain is the local train that runs from San Jose to San Francisco. After five months of no deaths, we had two in two days. When there is a death, it shuts the system down for hours. The police have to clear the crime scene, etc.

It was frustrating for me because I took the train to a client both days. I was stuck on the train that was not moving, while the client got madder and madder. The client went with another tech for the job, while I sat impotently on locked down train.

Just goes to show, you can have every tool in your kit, but get sidelined by the unexpected.

I wish peace to families of the train victims.

An inside look at security log management forensics investigations

An excellent article on logging tools, no not chainsaws.

Click for link to story.

Talk Forensics Welcomes this week's guest Harlan Carvey.

Click here for the link.

Harlan should be a great guest. This podcast snags the experts, but sometimes the interviewer fall flat. Not Larry, but his subs.

Trade in secondhand BlackBerries booming in Nigeria

Nigerian scammers are buying used BlackBerries for the data.

Google maps cause controversy in Japan

Google release maps that show the neighborhoods of former "death workers." These workers did meat slaughter, leather work, etc. Even after several generations, a descendant of a "death worker" is shunned.

Got Child Porn Stored in Your Xbox? New Forensic Tool Will Find It

XBox forensics

A forensics toolkit for the Xbox gaming console is described by US researchers in the latest issue of the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. The toolkit could allow law enforcement agencies to scour the inbuilt hard disk of such devices and find illicit hidden materials easily.

Terrorists used Hotmail, Gmail was too hard to get an account on...

FindLaw | al-Marri Guilty Plea

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Helix Pro 3 released, yay!

Helix Pro 3 released.