FIGHTING CRIME.....ETC....

Reproduced from The New York Times today....



SEIZE THIS Detective Lee Reiber is the cellphone recovery specialist for the police department in Boise, Idaho. After a suspect's phone has been confiscated, Detective Reiber tries to copy everything stored on it onto a desktop computer, where he can analyze the information.

E-MailPrint Reprints Save

By NOAH SHACHTMAN
Published: May 3, 2006
THE case against Dan Kincaid was strong. A homeowner in northern Boise, Idaho, had identified Mr. Kincaid, 44, as the person who had broken into his suburban house. But eyewitness testimony isn't always rock solid, and Mr. Kincaid was refusing to talk. The police wanted more. So they searched Mr. Kincaid's BlackBerry e-mail-capable phone electronically, and found all the evidence they needed.

"Just trying to find a way out of this neighborhood without getting caught," Mr. Kincaid wrote to his girlfriend on Aug. 1, 2005, shortly after he had been spotted. "Dogs bark if I'm between or behind houses. ... "

"Cops know I have a blue shirt on," he continued. "I need to get out of here before they find me."

Faced with his e-mailed admission, Mr. Kincaid agreed to a deal with prosecutors over that crime and a string of others. In February, he pleaded guilty to five counts of grand theft, resisting arrest and burglary.

"We seized his phone," said Detective Jeff Dustin of the Boise Police Department, "and instead of a jump shot, this case is a slam dunk."

Cellphones are everywhere: 825 million were sold last year, according to the market research firm IDC. And the phones do more than just dial numbers. With expanded memories, increasingly sophisticated organizer tools and sharper cameras, they are playing ever larger roles in the lives of almost everyone — including criminals. Drug dealers, rapists and murderers across the country have been caught based, at least partly, on the electronic gadgets they carry around.

But extracting clues and leads from mobile electronics is no cakewalk. Unlike personal computers, 90 percent or more of which use the Windows operating system, cellphones rely on a confusing jumble of software that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and even phone to phone. Data is often hidden or encrypted. And as long as a phone is connected to its cellular network, there is always a chance that its call histories and text messages will be erased, deliberately or otherwise.

Police departments have only recently begun training investigators in the delicate art of mobile-electronics forensics.

"It's a gold mine of information," said Detective Lee Reiber, the Boise officer who extracted the messages from Mr. Kincaid's phone. "But law enforcement is still way behind the curve."

Detective Reiber, 34, a former minor league catcher and longtime computer programmer, has been the Boise department's resident cellphone recovery specialist for about a year.

He usually begins an investigation by isolating the electronic device believed to be involved in the crime. Suspects or their accomplices sometimes flood captured phones with messages or calls, resulting in the deletion of incriminating notes or numbers from the device's memory, which can only hold so much information at once. Connecting to the network drains battery life. So when Detective Reiber arrives on the scene, he places the phone in a "Faraday bag," a container made of triwoven copper, nickel and silver that keeps the phone from making or receiving calls.

Back at his office, Detective Reiber tries to copy everything stored on the cellphone onto a desktop computer, where he can analyze the information. It can be a tedious process. Mobile devices lack standard cables and ports, and manufacturers use dozens of different cables. Detective Reiber must maintain a stockpile, hundreds deep, to keep up with the staggering variety.

The assortment of operating systems running these devices is as varied as the cables that connect them, so there is no single software tool that an investigator can use to communicate with the operating system to extract the data. Amber Schroader, a cellphone and palmtop expert and chief executive at Paraben Forensics, which makes the best known of the extraction programs, said the company could crack a new operating system in about a week.

"But still, there are just too many phones," she said. "And the manufacturers work like families. Just because you can speak with me doesn't mean you can speak with my cousin in Switzerland. She probably speaks a different language."

But even with the right forensics program and the right cable, extracting cellphone data can be tricky. Several mobile phone companies use a six-digit code, called a Master Subsidy Lock, to prevent the devices from connecting to other companies' networks. The code has the effect of rendering many of the phones' files invisible to investigators. The same is true if a suspect has locked his phone with a personal identification number, or PIN.

"When that happens, it's like a six-foot cement wall with barbed wire goes up," Ms. Schroader said. "There's no looking through it."

With a court order, investigators can usually get a code from the manufacturer that unlocks the PIN. Inside the phone, there is often an astounding amount of information: deleted text messages; lengthy call histories; pictures and movies taken so long ago that the owner may not even remember taking them. In February, the police in Merrimack, N.H., recovered a Porsche and a $120,000 red Ferrari 355 Challenge from what the police described as a "chop shop" after finding pictures on a suspect's phone. Also in February, officers in Atlantic City found a stolen AK-47 submachine gun the same way.

"They're these oracles of information," said Richard Mislan, a professor at Purdue University's cyberforensics center. "We can predict so much about you, based on what's inside."

Detective Reiber recently helped catch a suspected local drug dealer, after he found pictures on a hand-held device of marijuana plants and growing equipment — as well a message telling the suspect that "we want the same as last time. can you do it? 40 dollars." Phone in hand, the officers searched the suspect's car and home, finding three ounces of marijuana, bags and scales.

"If there's no cellphone, there's no vehicle, no home, no bust," Detective Reiber said. "The phone was the key."

More Articles in Technology »The New York Times Electronic Edition Special Offer: 1 Week Free

SI BUSCA "PEGA".......

Why you shouldn't lie on your résumé


Also in Job Market:
Advice on your résumé
A step-by-step guide for a successful cover letter
Writing the perfect thank you letter

posted by victor @ Wednesday, May 03, 2006