Coders, Exploits, Nics And Drops – Welcome To The World Of Web Crime

From Times Online:

The image of online criminals as amateur hackers, breaking into computer systems for kicks, has been out of date for some time. Online crime is dominated by professional criminals and has even given rise to distinct career paths that would-be criminals can choose to pursue from the outset.

On the technical side, “coders” specialise in writing malicious software designed to steal passwords and other personal data; others develop “exploits” designed to defeat security systems and hijack home or corporate PCs. Others provide the infrastructure — the networks, servers and internet connectivity — needed to launch attacks that steal personal information.

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Spanish Scientists Mod Optical Mouse Into Counterfeit Coin Detector

Counterfeit Coin Detector Tresanchez et al., via EurekAlert

From Popular Science:

Counterfeiting is as old as money itself, with the history of currency including a millennia-long arms race between mints and the forgers that copy them. While governments have finally crafted paper money so intricate that counterfeiting isn't a major problem, detecting counterfeit coins remains a challenge. Now, Spanish scientists have modified a regular optical computer mouse to create a cheap and easy device for sniffing out phony Euro coins.

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S Korea Clone Scientist Convicted

Photo: Hwang Woo-suk was a hero in South Korea until the revelations of fraud.

From BBC:

A South Korean court has convicted the disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk of embezzlement over his stem cell research.

He was given a two-year sentence suspended for three years.

The 56-year-old scientist's work had raised hopes of finding cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's.

But his research was declared bogus in 2005, and he was put on trial the following year for embezzlement and accepting money under false pretences.

Hwang's research made him a South Korean hero until revelations that it was false shocked the nation.

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Fake Video Footage 'Persuades Half Of People To Wrongly Accuse Others Of Crime'

Fake video footage can persuade almost half of viewers to
accuse innocent people of crimes Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

Fake video footage can persuade almost half of viewers to accuse people of crimes they have not committed, new research suggests.

The study found that exposure to fabricated footage can "dramatically alter" individuals' version of events, even convincing them to testify as an eyewitness to an event that never happened.

The study, by Warwick University, found that almost 50 per cent of people shown false footage of an event they witnessed first hand were prepared to believe the video version rather than what they actually saw.

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DNA Fingerprinting 25 Years Old

From BBC:

The scientist behind DNA fingerprinting has called for a change to the law governing DNA databases on the 25th anniversary of his discovery.

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys uncovered the process by chance in his laboratory at Leicester University.

The technique has since been used to solve crimes and identity cases.

But it has also led to controversy over profiles kept on the national DNA database. "Innocent people do not belong on that database," he said.

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What Makes A Psychopath? Answers Remain Elusive

Psychopathic behavior can take many forms, not all of it violent. But some common themes underlie the condition, with pieces of a brain's emotional machinery missing. Psychopaths often lack empathy, guilt, conscience or the ability to show remorse. Image credit: stockxpert

From Live Science:

As exaggerated as many popular depictions of psychopaths often are, many nevertheless do pose a genuine danger to others. So what makes psychopaths the way they are?

Scientists are now working toward uncovering the roots of this disorder in the brain. Their research could lead to ways to intervene against the disorder and hopefully prevent it from manifesting.

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DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show

From The New York Times:

Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.

The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.

“You can just engineer a crime scene,” said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which has been published online by the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics. “Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

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In The Pursuit Of Easy Money

Legal pounds Photo: CORBIS

From The Telegraph:

One in every fifty £1 coins is a fake, but the dark art of counterfeiting has been fascinating forgers for centuries.

On the morning of March 22, 1699 a prisoner in Newgate was brought to the hanging tree at Tyburn, now Marble Arch. He played to the crowd, praying loudly and then placing his own hood over his head before the executioner’s men pulled the ladder out from under him. He dangled, twitching and choking for minutes – the trapdoor gallows would not come into routine use in Britain for another 50 years – until at last he drooped.

Thus died William Chaloner, the most notorious counterfeiter of his day, brought to his death by the Warden of the Royal Mint – a former Cambridge don named Isaac Newton.

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'Smell Of Death' Research Could Help Recover Bodies In Disasters And Solve Crimes

Researchers say that a chemical profile of decomposition could eventually lead to a portable device for detecting human bodies at crime scenes and disaster areas. (Credit: Adam Dylewski, American Chemical Society)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2009) — In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, scientists today report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint of death. Speaking at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), they said a profile of the chemicals released from decomposing bodies could also lead to a valuable new addition to the forensic toolkit: An electronic device that could determine the time elapsed since death quickly, accurately and onsite.

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Eureka Moment That Led To The Discovery Of DNA Fingerprinting

Alec Jeffreys with a copy of the first DNA fingerprint profile. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

From The Guardian:

Twenty-five years ago academic Alec Jeffreys stumbled on a remarkable discovery. The scientific breakthrough led to DNA fingerprinting - which has since trapped hundreds of killers, freed the innocent and revolutionised science and criminal justice.

On 10 September 1984, geneticist Alec Jeffreys wrote three words - "33 autorad off" - in his red desk diary. The phrase marked the completion of an experiment, set up that summer, to study how inherited illnesses pass through families. It failed completely.

Yet the project remains one of the most profoundly influential pieces of research ever carried out in a British laboratory, for it produced the world's first DNA fingerprint, a technology that has revolutionised crime scene investigations, led to the convictions of murderers and rapists, and transformed immigration disputes and paternity cases.

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Science Found Wanting In U.S. Crime Labs

Robert Stinson, convicted of murder in 1984, was freed from a Wisconsin prison last month after tests found that bite-mark and DNA analysis did not match evidence from the crime scene. (Andy Manis/Associated Press)

From International Herald Tribune:

Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the nation's pre-eminent scientific research group.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences is to be released this month. People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting.

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New Fingerprint Method Could Unlock Cold Cases

A woman gives her fingerprints to join a petition in a file photo. (Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

From Yahoo News/Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - It's a discovery that would make even Sherlock Holmes proud. British scientists have developed a new crime-fighting technique that allows police to lift fingerprints from bullets even if a criminal has wiped down a shell casing.

Authorities in Britain and the United States used the method to re-open three cold cases, including a U.S. double murder that police are now optimistic of solving, said John Bond, the physicist who developed the technique.

"In one case there was enough evidence that could lead to an identification of an offender," said Bond, a researcher at the University of Leicester and consultant at Northamptonshire Police in Britain.

The conventional method of taking fingerprints has been around for more than 100 years and involves creating a chemical reaction with the sweat left behind on an object to produce an image police can use.

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