Drug Forensics Lab Slows Recertification by Implementing New Software System

Last Updated on Monday, 22 February 2010 09:53 Written by daniel.solid Wednesday, 17 February 2010 04:07

A drug identification lab made a smart move by implementing a software based tracking system, but they failed to realize that it would take a while to transition their policies and processes. They needed a better plan to ensure that things occured in time to get their certification completed again.

See the article on the McAlester office of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Internet Forensics Needs a National Web Hub for Law Enforcement

Last Updated on Friday, 12 February 2010 02:10 Written by kelly.solid Friday, 12 February 2010 02:10

A recent survey indicated that cybercrime personnel are becoming more and more frustrated with the timeliness of receiving subpoenaed information back from ISPs.  The article that I read stated that the survey based on questionnaires completed by 100 police investigators (authored by Frank Kardasz of the Phoenix PD), “says that 61 percent of them had their investigations harmed “because data was not retained” and only 40 percent were satisfied with the timeliness of responses from Internet providers.” The survey also stated that “89 percent of investigators agreed that a nationwide computer network should be established for the purpose of linking ISPs with law enforcement agencies so that they may exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process. Authorized users would communicate through encrypted virtual private networks in order to maintain the security of the data.”

Although there are a few ISP companies that offer a web interface to subpoena data (Sprint is one of them), there is no excitement in the ISP world for setting up a national system to handle this type of data.  There are too many security and privacy issues to overcome.  This is exacerbated by a recent Justice Department’s 289 page report that claimed the “FBI obtained Americans’ telephone records by citing nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing phone numbers on a sticky note rather than following procedures required by law.”

Maybe a national web interface is not the answer, but a better system needs to be put in place to allow law enforcement to obtain legal and timely information from ISPs and the Social Networks (Facebook, Myspace, etc.) to assist them in solving their cases.

What Kind of Forensic Investigation Can Bust the Morgan Harrington Case?

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26 Written by kelly.solid Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26

The missing person’s case that captured the nation’s attention came to an abrupt end thisweek with the confirmation that Morgan Harrington’s body had been found on a farm near Charlotteville, Virginia.  How was Morgan killed and more importantly, who killed her?

The how part of the murder should be know fairly soon with an autopsy.  Hopefully, the Virginia State Police can garner enough DNA evidence to determine some physical evidence of who might have been involved.  It has been over 3 months since that fateful night, 17 october 2009, but DNA forensic experts know that you can determine a lot with very little. One such article I read indicated that, to the examiner’s advantage was the fact that Morgan’s body was perserved in snow for much of the time.  Heat causes faster decompostion, so hopefully the cold winter will play to the investigator’s favor.

Another area that the investigator’s should look into is finding the perps through cell phone analysis.  Cell phone analysis?  What is this guy on, you might ask?  Hear me out.  Per the police timeline/map,Morgan was last seen about 9:20PM walking away from the stadium (Metallica concert).  Obviously someone picked her up sometime after that and took her body approximately 10 miles away onto a farm where her body was found this week.  What if, the perp(s), any of the them, used or received a cell phone call around the time of Morgan’s disapperance at or near the stadium?  Then what if, that same perp or perps, made or recieved a phone call at or near the farm later that evening when Morgan’s body was dropped off?  We would have a way to identify through correlation analysis matching phone numbers from the appropriate cell towers.  Do a cell tower dump the night of 17 October around 9PM near that bridge and another cell tower dump where the body was found.  It is worth a try and possibly a case buster.