As e-discovery evolves and new legal technology emerges, practitioners need to invest in continued learning to maintain competence in the field and compliance with ethical standards. To help you stay current on case law, tools and rules impacting e-discovery and keep up with ethics standards, LegalTech New York (LTNY), is providing excellent educational tracks, including an opportunity to earn 5.5 units of ethics credit.
Ethics, generally, is a set of rules for “right conduct” or a system of moral principles. What determines the “rightness” or “wrongness” of certain actions (or inactions) and the motives for such actions? The answers to such questions are not absolute; rather, ethical behavior is often defined in the context of a particular community, such as academia or the media or the legal profession.
In the legal profession, where lawyers have a special responsibility to the quality of justice, ethical conduct has been a concern for a long time. More than 100 years ago, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted the original Canons of Professional Ethics, and since then has provided leadership in ethics and professional responsibility through a set of standards that provide guidance to legal professionals. Today, conduct in the legal field is mainly governed by the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC).
MRPC 1.1 sets the stage for expected behavior: “A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for representation.” The level of e-discovery knowledge and skill required of attorneys depends on a variety of factors, but at the very least, a mastery of the basics is expected.
Ethics in e-discovery is getting more attention as migration from paper documents to digital files has given rise to unique issues related to the creation, storage and retention of information. Special topics of current relevance include the potential for overreliance on technology, the increasing number of non-lawyers performing discovery-related work (see MRPC 5.5), the migration of data to the cloud and social media.
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In 2012, Ernst & Young’s Simon Placks will be writing for I4S on a monthly basis as we focus anew on the topic of IT security and threats in the digital arena. Here, Simon sets the scene.
In the UK, I often think that if you stand somewhere long enough you will eventually become part of a queue. Try it the next time you’re in a shopping centre. People, it would seem, believe that if you’re standing still when everybody else is running around then there simply must be a pretty good reason for it.
Standing still and not ‘moving with the times’ is generally discouraged in the security world. In the field of computer forensics, practitioners are in a continuous technological ‘arms race’ with wrongdoers while software and devices are constantly changing.
There’s a need to be able to find evidence on whatever technology is out there – including the latest gadgets, satellite navigation tools, tablets or cloud services.
Yet, at the same time, it can be surprising how hesitant practitioners feel as the discipline evolves. In the world of proof and evidence, tried-and-tested technologies and procedures are hard-earned and valued. Despite this discomfort, we’re now seeing the emergence of ‘a new forensics’: a discipline that’s reinventing itself year-by-year, but that remains rooted in stable scientific principles.
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Bombs, sex crimes, homicides, suicides, fraud and burglary. Such cases are where the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office new digital forensics investigator comes into play.
To keep up with advances in digital technology and communication — and the criminals who use them — the sheriff’s office added the digital forensics position this year, moving former narcotics investigator Vince Ziccardi into the role.
“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” said Tod Goodyear, who supervises the sheriff’s criminal investigations unit. “(Criminals) are finding new ways to do things every day. They are now able to network (online) and get better at what they do.”
Ziccardi’s expertise and training to find information on computers and digital devices are a resource for fraud investigators at each precinct in the county.
“It’s nice to have that investigative background,” Goodyear said. “A lot of narcotics is transactional and organizational, so he still has that mindset that picks up things others may not see.”
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Before RCMP Sergeant Jeff Cameron left his Edmonton office on Friday, Dec. 16, he took a laptop seized in a drug bust, hooked it up to his computer and clicked “run” on digital forensics software created in Waterloo, Ont.
While Sgt. Cameron enjoyed his weekend, the software combed the laptop for digital traces of more than 30 types of instant messaging chat logs and then sorted them in a detailed report. On Monday morning, he strolled into the office to find more than 14,000 instant message conversations had been retrieved and categorized, ready to be handed over to the Mounties’ lead investigators.
“We use it on basically every case, on everything from murder to stock fraud to national security,” Sgt. Cameron said.
The program was created in 2009 by Jad Saliba, then a police officer and amateur computer programmer assigned to a desk job in the tech crimes unit of the Waterloo Regional Police Service after undergoing cancer treatment at the age of 26. Now, the former cop’s software is used by more than 1,100 of the world’s most discriminating corporate clients and security agencies, from Barclays PLC and Bank of America to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, not to mention Scotland Yard.
By using Mr. Saliba’s Internet Evidence Finder tool, police in the United States were able to gather more than 37,000 MSN instant messenger chats to prove a woman in Michigan spent countless hours on the computer while her disabled, 21-year-old daughter starved to death. Police in New Hampshire used it to gather Facebook chats between a local man and a girl under the age of 16. Elsewhere, national security agencies from the United Kingdom to Australia are using the software on a daily basis, since almost every criminal case these days has a digital element to it and tech crime specialists almost always have a backlog.
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The International High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA), a professional group of law enforcement, private investigators and corporate security professionals, has joined the Consortium of Digital Forensics Specialists (CDFS) as an Organizational Member. The membership means that HTCIA members, through their board representatives, will collectively be able to help determine standards for digital forensics ethics, practice and professional licensing and certification, among other areas…
“For 25 years, our members have contributed to the development of digital investigation as a science and a profession,” said Duncan Monkhouse, International President of the HTCIA. “Supporting the CDFS is a natural outgrowth of their contributions. We look forward to helping shape the education and training of this particular facet of high tech crime investigation, which is just one of the many our membership serves.”
“HTCIA’s membership is a welcome addition because of its members’ breadth of experience not just in digital forensics, but also in private investigation, prosecution, and other professions that affect the way digital forensics is perceived within the investigative community,” said Christopher Kelly, president of the CDFS. “We look forward to their input and assistance in driving not just our association, but the entire profession forward.”
HTCIA joins two other nonprofit professional organizations, the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) and the Association of Digital Forensics, Security and Law (ADFSL) as members of CDFS.
A new unit of state investigators and attorneys is charged with following electronic crimes.
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris this week announced the creation of the eCrime Unit, staffed with Department of Justice attorneys and investigators.
They are charged with identifying and prosecuting identity theft crimes, cyber-crimes and other crimes involving the use of technology.
“Today’s criminals increasingly use the Internet, smartphones and other digital devices to victimize people online and offline,” Harris said. “I am creating the eCrime Unit so that California can be a leader in using innovative law enforcement techniques to target these criminals.”
Unit members will work across jurisdictions and lead task forces, she said.
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When a woman in Pennsylvania reported that someone was using her credit card to buy pizzas in Forest Lake, police tracked the deliveries to a local apartment.
It seemed like a simple case to solve.
While at the apartment, however, they found substantial evidence of Internet identity theft. The investigation quickly ballooned to involve a five-state crime ring that had victimized hundreds of people. Forest Lake police became immersed in more than 400 hours of detective work, and now several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are working together to find all the crooks.
“Law enforcement has taken a whole new turn, where we’re investigating more identity theft and computer-related crimes,” said Forest Lake Police Chief Rick Peterson, who cited the case as a textbook example of what Minnesota’s law enforcement agencies face these days. “Those crimes have just really increased, not only in Forest Lake but all over out there.”
The acceleration of financial crimes on the Internet — where crooks wheel and deal almost at will — is stretching Minnesota’s police agencies to their limits.
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A computer science student from Lancaster University has become the UK winner of the digital forensics challenge, a global competition designed and hosted by the US Department of Defense.
Christopher Richardson (AKA Ikarus) came first in the UK and ninth internationally among 1,791 competitors from 52 countries. The challenge was designed to test the ability of competitors to extract and scrutinise data to solve a simulated cyber crime. Aspects of the challenge involved understanding file signatures, metadata hashes, data hiding, communication recovery, and information concealment.
“It was difficult in parts but really enjoyable,” says Richardson, who is currently studying for a PhD in intrusion detection systems. “I have always had an interest in a wide range of security areas both inside and outside of my academic speciality and this competition gave me a platform to test my skills on practical problems with real world relevance. After getting stuck a couple of times, I didn’t think I had done that well, but to win the UK stream and do so well across the whole competition feels great.”
Richardson will receive £2,000 of security training from 7Safe as a reward for his efforts, which have also earned him a place in the UK Cyber Security Challenge UK’s face-to-face play-offs next year. He qualifies, alongside several runners up, for the Sophos Malware Hunt on 14 January, where competitors will be asked to identify and explain a range of real malicious code from the vaults at Sophos’ Labs.
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Along with being home to Silicon Valley, California is also an epicenter of cybercrime.
That led California Attorney General Kamala Harris to announce today the creation of a new state Justice Department unit to combat crimes that enlist technology.
The eCrime unit aims to “make sure that vulnerable populations are safe, that consumers are safe, and that we allow good behavior to occur,” Harris said at a news conference in San Jose, Calif (see video of news conference below). “But where there are predators and predatory practices, we want to ensure we have the skills and technology to go after them and make sure there is accountability and consequence.”
The unit, consisting of 20 investigators and prosecutors, is tasked with investigating crimes such as identity theft, child pornography, copyright violations, and software piracy. The unit, which has been operational since August, has filed charges in 20 cases and is investigating another 24 cases.
Before the unit’s creation, Harris said, cybercrimes weren’t always investigated or prosecuted fully due to confusion over jurisdiction.
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CYBER attacks traced to China targeted at least 48 chemical and military-related companies in an effort to steal technical secrets, a US computer security company said yesterday.
The targets included 29 chemical companies and 19 others that make advanced materials used by the military, California-based Symantec said in a report.
It said the group included multiple Fortune 100 companies but did not identify them or say where they were located.
“The purpose of the attacks appears to be industrial espionage, collecting intellectual property for competitive advantage,” said the report.
Security experts said China was a centre for internet crime. Attacks against governments, companies and human rights groups had been traced to this country, though finding the precise source was nearly impossible.
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Police investigating the suicide of a 14-year-old New York boy have sent his computer and cell phone to a forensics lab to help determine whether bullying he endured rose to a criminal level.
Amherst Police Chief John Askey said Wednesday it could take weeks or months for experts to check Jamey Rodemeyer’s devices for evidence that could support charges of aggravated harassment or a hate crime.
“Jamey unfortunately can’t speak for himself now,” Askey said during a news conference at the suburban Buffalo police station. “But hopefully we’ll be able to determine that through his computer.”
The Sept. 18 death of Rodemeyer, who described himself online as gay, has led to renewed calls for better anti-bullying efforts in schools and for specific anti-bullying laws. Lady Gaga is among celebrity supporters.
The police investigation into Rodemeyer’s death is focused on the high school freshman’s extensive online activity as well as incidents of alleged bullying while he was a student at Heim Middle School and Williamsville North High School which, on their own, may not be considered criminal acts.
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In a few weeks, Vancouver’s riot investigators will travel to a lab at the University of Indianapolis where they will team up with about 30 forensic video experts from around the world to process and analyze 1,600 hours of riot footage.
Among the key roles that the Digital Multimedia Evidence Processing Lab will play will be to help investigators find out whether a person suspected of committing a crime at one location may have committed crimes at other locations that night.
The public has flooded the Vancouver Police Department with tips, photos and videos. On Friday, police announced they had identified nine suspected rioters from a rogues gallery they posted online Tuesday — adding to the hundreds of individuals to be investigated.
The website — riot2011.vpd.ca — contains images of 40 suspects from the June 15 riots they are trying to identify.
But the lab is not like on TV where you punch a few buttons and the computer does all the work.
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