Forensics Talk

Agents Dismantle Alleged Pill Mills That Netted $40 Million

Yahoo News

By Dale K. DuPont Dale K. Dupont – Tue Aug 23, 9:10 pm ET

MIAMI (Reuters) – "State and federal agents cracked down on Tuesday on South Florida pill mills, dismantling what was described as the nation's largest criminal organization involved in illegally distributing painkillers.

Authorities charged 32 doctors, pain clinic owners and workers with illegally prescribing more than 20 million painkillers and reaping more than $40 million in profits from 2008 to early 2010.

The indictment reflects a "multi-pronged attack on those who contribute to illegal diversion of pharmaceutical drugs from the pill mills of Florida to the streets of communities across the United States," said Mark R. Trouville, special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The clinics wrote prescriptions for large quantities of oxycodone, which authorities said were used by traffickers and addicts.

People "would often travel great distances, as far as one thousand miles or more, with complaints of alleged intractable pain," the indictment states.

Demand for the prescription drugs has grown to epidemic proportions in Florida and other parts of the United States, where dealers can sell a 30-milligram oxycodone pill on the street for $10 to $30 or more, authorities have said.

Florida leads the nation in diverted prescription drugs, according to the Attorney General's Office. Seven people die in the state each day from drug overdoses.

The indictment says that many in the newly charged group were also involved in the illegal Internet distribution of anabolic steroids, and some engaged in wide-ranging violence, including kidnapping, extortion and other crimes against competitors and people they suspected of disloyalty.

The five-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday includes racketeering, money laundering, and wire and mail fraud conspiracy charges. Thirteen of those charged were doctors ranging in age from 36 to 76 who worked at the pain clinics. . . " Read more

Authorities Say Online Child Pornography Network Dismantled

Yahoo News 

By James Vicini James Vicini – Wed Aug 3, 4:13 pm ET

     WASHINGTON (Reuters) – "Authorities said on Wednesday they have dismantled an online bulletin board allegedly used by 600 people around the world to trade graphic images and videos of child sex abuse.

More than 70 people have been charged in connection with the private site, which was called "Dreamboard" and gave members varying access to the material. Board members who molested children themselves getting the most coveted "Super VIP" access to pictures and videos, they said.

"To put it simply, we have charged that these individuals shared a dream -- to create the preeminent online community for the promotion of child sexual exploitation," Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters. "But for the children they victimized, this was nothing short of a nightmare."

U.S. officials called it the largest prosecution of people who participated in an online child exploitation enterprise operated for the purpose of promoting child sexual abuse, disseminating child pornography and evading law enforcement.

The bulletin board, created in 2008, folded in the spring of this year when members became aware of the U.S. government's investigation, Justice Department officials said.

The 600 members of Dreamboard offered to trade images and videos of infants and children 12 and younger, contained in some 27,000 posts, the authorities said.

"The nature of this crime is abhorrent. These are some of the most disturbing images I think you will ever see," Holder said, adding that some victims were in obvious pain and crying.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said digital media recovered from those arrested in the United States included more than 1 million images of child pornography.

Of those charged in the United States, 43 have been arrested in this country and nine foreign nationals have been arrested overseas, including accused bulletin board administrators located in Canada and France, the officials said.

The board's three other administrators have yet to be identified and authorities were seeking to identify other members and the victims, they said. About one-third of the members were in the United States and the rest were overseas.

Arrests also took place in Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, the Philippines, Qatar and Serbia, among other countries.

"The dismantling of Dreamboard is another stark warning to would-be child predators who think they can trade in child pornography," said John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which conducted the investigation. . . " Read More

Army Slow To Act as Crime-lab Worker Falsified, Botched Tests

Health & Fitness

By Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle

McClatchy Newspapers

Posted: 03/19/2011 12:00:00 AM PDT

Updated: 03/19/2011 08:58:03 PM PDT

     WASHINGTON -- "For nearly three years, the military held the key to Roger House's exoneration and didn't tell him: A forensics examiner had botched a crucial lab test used in the Navy lieutenant's court-martial.

In fact, the military had begun second-guessing a decade's worth of tests conducted by its one-time star lab analyst, Phillip Mills.

Investigators discovered that Mills had cut corners and even falsified reports in one case. He found DNA where it didn't exist, and failed to find it where it did. His mistakes may have let the guilty go free while the innocent, such as House, were convicted.

"It cost him his family and it cost him his Navy career," House's attorney, John Wells, said in an interview. "It's certainly outrageous and unconscionable; it's the kind of action that makes you want to scream."

But the problem was bigger than just a lone analyst.

While a McClatchy Newspapers investigation revealed that Mills' mistakes undermined hundreds of criminal cases brought against military personnel, it also found that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory was lax in supervising Mills, slow to re-examine his work and slipshod about informing defendants. Officials appeared intent on containing the scandal that threatened to discredit the military's most important forensics facility, which handles more than 3,000 criminal cases a year.

The military has never publicly acknowledged the extent of Mills' mistakes nor

the lab's culpability. McClatchy pieced together the untold story by conducting dozens of interviews and reviewing internal investigations, transcripts and other documents. The McClatchy investigation shows: Read More

 

Study: Hand Bacteria a Potential Source of Forensic Evidence

Cleveland.com

Published: Monday, March 15, 2010, 8:03 PM     Updated: Monday, March 15, 2010, 8:05 PM

By McClatchy-Tribune News Service

     LOS ANGELES --" Forget fingerprint dusting. Crime-scene drama fans might soon see a new forensic technique debut on their favorite TV series: hand-germ testing.

According to a study published online Monday, bacteria that live on a person's hands could one day accurately identify that individual. This could come in handy to track down a criminal who has worn gloves, removed prints and other personal physical evidence, or touched surfaces such as fabric where a fingerprint wouldn't show up, the researchers said.

The concept, outlined in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, relies upon the fact that human beings leave a trail of bacteria on objects they touch and that the mix of microbes on each person's hand is highly individualized.

"There's a rain forest of bacteria on your skin," said lead author Noah Fierer, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A human hand can contain on average about 100 different species of bacteria, he said, and only about 13 percent of that makeup is shared between any two people.

Fierer and colleagues compared the bacteria found on people's computer mice to a database of bacteria collected from hands of 270 individuals. The bacterial colonies from the computer mice most closely matched that of the owner's hands, the scientists found.

The technique was between 70 percent and 90 percent accurate overall, but this could be sharpened as technology becomes more sophisticated, Fierer said. . . " Read More

Gruesome photos, bogus computer entries are key to homicide case against child welfare workers

NY Daily News                                                    

BY Oren Yaniv and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, March 25th 2011, 4:00 AM

     "Gruesome photos of a battered 4-year-old girl. Autopsy reports showing she was drugged. Twine used to tie her to a bed.

Prosecutors seeking homicide convictions for the two child welfare workers assigned to protect Marchella Brett-Pierce have several pieces of dramatic evidence - but the most damning are a few bogus computer entries.

Experts say caseworker Damon Adams' alleged attempt to cover up his failure to monitor Marchella could be a silver bullet for prosecutors.

Adams, 36, is accused of never visiting Marchella's Brooklyn home despite glaring warning signs - and fudging computer records to show he checked in on her in the months before she died.

What authorities described as record tampering shows that Adams "had an understanding of the nature of his failure to act and the potential consequences for it," said Paul Gentile, a former Bronx prosecutor. "That takes the DA a significant distance to proving his case."

David Shapiro, a former Newark prosecutor, agreed.

"The false entry indicates that he knew that he blew it," said Shapiro. "That's the key." Read More

California Lawsuit Accuses Bristol-Myers Squibb of Fraud, Kickbacks

The Baltimore Sun                                                   

By Duke Helfand and Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times                 

March 19, 2011

 "California regulators are taking aim at giant drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., accusing it of bribing doctors and pharmacists to use its products by offering thousands of cash kickbacks, gifts and "happy hours" with the Los Angeles Lakers.

     The case against the drug company was developed with the help of former Lakers player Lucius Allen and his wife, Eve, who worked for Bristol-Myers and provided access to the basketball team, according to a lawsuit made public Friday. Doctors and family members were invited to Lakers Dream Camps arranged by the company, the lawsuit said.

     Doctors also were treated to tickets and luxury suites for Lakers games, and received pointers, balls and autographs from some of the team's most famous players, the suit alleges.

     New York-based Bristol-Myers vowed to fight the case. "Bristol-Myers Squibb believes this lawsuit has no merit and the company will defend itself vigorously," it said in a statement.

     The California lawsuit was originally filed in March 2007 by Michael Wilson, a former Bristol-Myers employee. It was sealed until last week when a judge granted a request by the state Department of Insurance — which joined the suit — to make it public.

     The case is the latest major legal action against Bristol-Myers over fraud accusations. In 2007, it paid $515 million to settle allegations by the federal government and other states that it used a kickback scheme to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs. . . " Read More

KY - 14-Year Old Child Pornographers? Sexting Lawsuits Get Serious

Sex Offender Issues

By Nate Anderson

      "If a middle-aged man meets a 14-year-old girl, coerces her to film a 10-second clip of herself masturbating, then intentionally releases that clip on the Internet, the man could clearly be charged under US federal law against the “sexual exploitation of children.” But what happens when the “man” is a 14-year-old boy who the 14-year old girl likes? And what if the "coercion" to make the film is the boy's threat not to befriend the girl in their new high school without the video?

An ongoing federal court case in Kentucky is currently trying to answer some of the thorniest questions surrounding "sexting," the practice of sending sexually explicit photographs or videos to friends or lovers. Rules designed to stop predatory adults from taking advantage of children become murkier when both parties involved in sexting are kids; in fact, no federal precedent exists for these kinds of sexting suits against minors.

A new ruling in the Kentucky case will allow that lawsuit to move forward, however, with the judge deciding that even 14-year olds can be child pornographers. . . " Read More

Discovery and Social Networking Sites: Want a Judge Reading Your Posts?

   Here's another excellent post by Mr. Stratton on why people need to be cautious when posting on social media networks:

Insurance Defense Blog 

by David B. Stratton, Esq. of Jordan Coyne & Savits LLP.

February 6, 2011

     "DRI's online newsletter, E-Discovery Connection, vol 5, issue 3, has a number of worthwhile articles on discovery of information on social networking sites.  I like the case where a federal judge offered to do an in camera review of a party's Facebook account by "friending" the party.  Think about whether you would want a federal judge reviewing all of your Facebook pages, which would include things you didn't even write."

The following cases are among those discussed in that newsletter:

EEOC v. Simply Storage Mgmt. (courtesy of Indiana Law Blog)

O'Grady v. Superior Court

Romano v. Steelcase

Barnes v. CUS Nashville

McMillen v. Hummingbird Speedway

 Dexter v. Dexter

Moreno v. Handford Sentinel

Rehberg v. Paulk

McCann v. Harleysville

Crispin v. Audigier

Posted by David B. Stratton on February 06, 2011 at 01:38 PM

From e-Discovery Connection by John D Martin:

  "... Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 (A)(1)(a) was amended in 2006 to include "electronically

stored information" ("ESI") in the definition of what is subject to a request for production."

See Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 advisory

committee's note (2006).

" . . Although social networking sites were in their infancy when the 2006  rules revision process began, the language of Rule 34 is broad enough to include the content on 

any type of internet site, as long as the content is stored. Messages, status updates, pictures, videos, contact information, and all other content posted on social networking sites fits the Rule 34 definition of "data compilations stored in any medium from which information can be obtained."

 

California Man Used Facebook To Hack Women's E-mails

Yahoo News                                                                                

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Don Thompson, Associated Press – Fri Jan 14, 9:19 pm ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – "In a cautionary tale for users of social-networking sites, a California man has admitted using personal information he gleaned from Facebook to hack into women's e-mail accounts, then send nude pictures of them to everyone in their address book.

The California attorney general's office said Friday that George Bronk, 23, commandeered the e-mail accounts of dozens of women in the U.S. and England. He then scanned the women's "sent" folders for nude and seminude photos and videos, and forwarded any he found to all the women's contacts, prosecutors said.

Bronk coerced one woman into sending him more explicit photographs by threatening to distribute the pictures he already had. One victim told authorities the intrusion felt like "virtual rape."

Bronk, who lives in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, pleaded guilty Thursday to seven felonies in Sacramento County Superior Court, including computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography.

Prosecutors are seeking a six-year prison term when Bronk returns for a sentencing evaluation March 10.

His attorney, Monica Lynch of Roseville, called her client a "23-year-old boy going on 15."

"He's accepted full responsibility. It's a tragic situation," she said.

Lynch said she will argue for less than a six-year sentence. . . " Read More

Super Computer Hunts Child Abusers

New Scientist

12:48 03 December 2010 by Frank Swain

   " With the help of their 1.8 petaflop supercomputer, Jaguar, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee are sifting through internet traffic in search of suspicions patterns that will lead police to the perpetrators of child pornography.

In standard police work, checking a suspect's hard drive will show whether they have been downloading illegal content such as child pornography. But catching the criminals that produce such material in the first place is even more important, because they can often lead police to the children who are being abused. It is far from easy, since you can't necessarily tell who took the illicit images stored on a hard drive.

The problem with policing child pornography online is that there is simply too much of it, says Grier Weeks, executive director of the National Association to Protect Children. "We could quadruple our law enforcement dedicated to this problem overnight, and they'd still be overwhelmed," he says.

He approached the computer scientists at Oak Ridge in search of a solution, "They were genuinely stunned and moved by what they'd heard," he told New Scientist. "And within a week they were making a visit to the Knoxville Internet Crimes Against Children task force". . . " 

Read More

 

 

The Business of Cybercrime

Computer Crime Research Center

Date: December 09, 2010
Source: ABC.net.au
By: Michael Sentonas, McAfee

  " Globalisation offers many benefits to consumers and businesses. Unfortunately, it also offers plenty of opportunities for organised crime. Rather than going it alone, many Internet criminals join organised crime groups or they create new ones. Whether the reasons are economic, cultural, or technical, the motivations behind joining the virtual criminal universe are plentiful. Around the world, some individuals and many organised crime or mafia groups carry out illegal acts on the web, often in the hope of becoming rich.

Australia is one of the top 10 target countries for cybercrime. We recently came across an incident where Australian credit card holders' personal information was compromised when it was published on a website originating from Vietnam. This might seem like a one-off case, however, these incidents are part of an organised cybercrime effort . . . " Read More

Combating Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism, and the Internet Underground

Computer Crime Research Center

Date: October 25, 2010
Source: Blog.oregonlive.com

     "When it comes to the Internet, criminals are two steps ahead of the game and are winning the battle and the war. That’s the view of Dr. Rocky Termanini, a certified information technology security professional and member of the American College of Forensic Examiners.

Dr. Termanini will appear at Clark College on Friday, Nov. 5. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Foster Hall Auditorium. Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps.

Dr. Termanini said, “The Internet has provided wonderful opportunities in every area of our lives. At the same time, it provided an easy way for criminals and terrorists to hurt and disrupt our society.” He added, “Today, no business is immune from cyber attacks. The first step is to know the landscape of cybercrime and raise awareness before launching the right counter attacks.”

Clark College has recently added a cybersecurity class to its Data Technology and Telecommunications Technology (DNET) program. . . " Read More

Cybercrime Strikes more Than Two-Thirds of Internet Users

Computer Crime Research Center

Date: November 11, 2010
Source: Companies.mybroadband.co.za

  "The next time you surf the Internet, consider this: You might be just one click away from becoming the next cybercrime victim. A study released from security software maker Norton reveals the staggering prevalence of cybercrime: Two-thirds (65 percent) of Internet users globally have fallen victim to cybercrimes, including online credit-card fraud, identity theft and computer viruses.

The Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact shines a light on the personal toll cybercrime takes. The first study to examine the emotional effects of cybercrime, it shows that victims’ strongest reactions are anger (58 percent), annoyance(51 percent) and a feeling of having been cheated (40 percent). Many blame themselves for being attacked. Only three percent don’t think it will happen to them, and nearly 80 percent do not expect cybercriminals to be brought to justice. The result is a sense of helplessness and a reluctance to take action.

Despite the emotional burden, the universal threat, and the incidence of cybercrime, people still aren’t changing their behaviour – with only half saying they would change their behaviour if they became a victim. More disturbingly, fewer than half (44 percent) reported the crime to the police. . . " Read More

Role of Computer Forensic Expert in Litigation Process

Data Triage Technologies

Computer Forensics

"Computer forensics are used in criminal investigation, civil litigation, hacking, embezzlement, industrial espionage, insurance fraud and law enforcement or Internet/company property abuse.

Computer forensics focuses on acquisition, restoration and analysis of digital data. In business world, computer forensics can be used to restore corrupted or lost data, resurrect outdated software environment, and analyze common security breach activities."

A Computer Forensics Expert

"A computer forensics expert is an experienced personnel who can access a compromised computer, duplicate all files and directories and document all steps taken during the recovery and discovery process. A computer forensics expert is an experienced personnel who can maintain the integrity of data, preserving the chain of control and following a proven methodology of review. A computer forensics expert can track deleted files, hidden files, files created by the system such as an automatic backup of a document, or fragmented files that are scattered throughout the storage devices. A computer forensics expert is an experienced personnel who can document the location of electronic data, its nature, format and other identifiers. . . " Read More