Digital Forensics News Archive. For more recent news, click here.
November 2007
Bankers Face Jail Sentence
They admitted conspiring with ex-Enron staff to defraud NatWest of $19m (£9m) and then split $7m between themselves......
Preacher Jailed over £51m Fraud
A lay preacher who admitted a £51m VAT fraud has been jailed for 10 years.....
Brown Apologises for Records Loss
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he "profoundly regrets" the loss of 25 million child benefit records...
Police Dismantle Global Child Porn Network
Police have dismantled an international child pornography ring that used the internet to produce and distribute tailor-made videos to some 2,500 customers in 19 countries.....
'Thousands' Pose UK Terror Threat
There are at least 2,000 people in the UK who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism, the head of MI5 has said.....
Land Registry Axes Online Deeds
The Land Registry is to remove online versions of scanned mortgage deeds and leases amid concerns that fraudsters have been accessing the documents......
October 2007
Jailed Terror Student 'Hid' Files
Careless use of Windows folders cost a Scottish student a lengthy prison stretch today, as an Edinburgh High Court Judge sentenced Mohammed Atif Siddique to eight years for possession of terrorism-related items.....
Teacher Charged with Child Images
A teacher has been charged with having indecent images of children and abusing a position of trust.....
Internet Paedophile Sent to Jail
An internet paedophile caught after a joint operation between Scottish Police and the FBI has been jailed. Ross McKinnon, 33, from Hallglen, near Falkirk, also served as captain of the 5th Grangemouth Company Boys Brigade....
Virus hits 1m China Computers
Almost one million Chinese computers were hit by viruses during last week's national holidays, state media has reported.....
Software to Target Cyber Bullying
New computer software to tackle cyber-bullying is being rolled out across schools in London.....
Septmeber 2007
Job losses over eBay 'addiction'
Three council workers have lost their jobs for spending too long on the internet auction site eBay.....
US Rules will Affect your Data
Recent changes to Federal rules of civil procedure governing lawsuits in the US will have big implications for UK CIOs who also operate Stateside.......
Web site Glitch Exposes Hotel Customers' Details
glitch on the web site of hotel chain Travelodge led to names, addresses and parts of credit card numbers being accessible to other customers.....
NHS Patient Data Sold on eBay
An NHS trust is investigating how one of its hard drives containing confidential information was sold online......
Government should Provide Guidance on Data Breaches
US-style laws requiring UK companies to report data breaches will be less effective at improving security than providing them with guidance, a panel of experts has warned......
Security Warning as NHS staff view Celebrity Record
An NHS primary care trust has warned of a new risk to the confidentiality of medical records under the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), after more than 50 staff viewed the electronic records of a celebrity admitted into hospital.....
August 2007
Terror Trail Evidence "may have been risked by officer"
A special branch officer may have inadvertently contaminated evidence in a terror trial, it was claimed yesterday. Detective Constable Gary Murray accepted he breached police guidelines by switching on a laptop belonging to student Mohammed Atif Siddique at Glasgow Airport......
Facebook Users open to ID Theft
A leading internet security company has warned that millions of Facebook users are leaving themselves open to identity theft by giving personal information to complete strangers.....
Government Must Act on E-Crime
The government must do more to protect internet users from the threat of e-crime, says a House of Lords report....
Cell Site Analysis used in the case of Missing Girl
A body found next to a railway line in Essex is believed to be Natasha Coombs, who went missing a fortnight ago, police have said......
Don't Recycle Your Computer, Reuse it Instead
On 1 July, new WEEE regulations were officially introduced, prompting HP and Dell to report their progress towards recycling and recovering e-waste. However, less widely reported were Michael Dell's comments about the huge potential of reusing the 125 million computers that come out of circulation every year......
Beware of Celebrity Porn Experts Warn
Experts are warning of a flood of emails distributed over the last few days purporting to contain pornographic images of celebrities.....
Actor Leaves Court a Sex Offender
Actor Chris Langham was yesterday sentenced for fifteen counts of making indecent images of children.....
Businesses Must Crack Down on Piracy
The arrest of 25 members of a counterfeiting syndicate in China last week is the latest reminder of the scale and reach of the software black market.......
July 2007
The New Frontiers of Electronic Discovery
LegalTech New York explores the next generation of computer forensic tools.....
Office of Fair Trading Use Digital Forensics
An investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) into bid rigging in the construction industry has broadened to take in 150 firms, including Kier, ROK and Galliford Try.....
How to Prevent Card Fraud
Card-not-present (CNP) transactions are considered high risk because neither the card nor the cardholder is present, so the seller is unable to check the physical security features of the card to determine its authenticity. In addition, without a Pin or signature it is impossible to confirm that the customer is the genuine cardholder.......
Concern for E-crime Agencies in Wake of Staff Losses
Eight staff in the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) e-crime department have left the organisation in the past four months amid concerns over the operation of the unit........
Chineese Authorities Bust Illegal Software Syndicate
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and China's Public Security Bureau (PSB) have made a number of arrests in China following an investigation into an alleged software counterfeiting syndicate......
Infected Websites Up Six-Fold
The number of web pages sending out malware has increased six-fold in under a year, according to security software company Sophos........
Credit Firm Insists there is no Security Concern
Fidelity National Information Services has admitted this week that Certegy Check Services, a Fidelity subsidiary that provides check processing services, was "victimised" by a database administrator who stole and sold bank and credit card data on up to 2.3 million customers.....
New ACPO Guidelines Released to the Police
The Good Practice Guide for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence has been revised by experts to reflect recent developments in computer forensic investigation techniques......
New Powers for Data Watchdog
The forthcoming Statistics and Registration Bill will set up a board to oversee the work of the Office of National Statistics and handle large amounts of information collected from businesses and the public......
Man Jailed over Terror Cell Plans
Omar Altimimi, of Bolton, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of six charges of possession of material for a purpose connected with terrorism.....
May 2007
Electronic Disovery
The courts are struggling to cope with Information technology in America.....
New Guidelines for Grading Indecent Images
The Sentencing Guidelines Council have announced new guidelines for the grading of indecent images, effective from 14th May 2007....
Industry Approval for Anti-Spamming Technology
New technology to combat spam and phishing attacks has been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The industry group has accepted a draft standard for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), which uses encrypted digital signatures to validate the identity of an email sender.....
National E-Crime Unit takes Tentative First Steps
The creation of a national e-crime co-ordination unit is getting underway following financial support from the National Police Improvement Authority......
Renewed Calls for .bank Domain Names
Calls have been renewed for a .bank top-level domain to be created to improve the security of online banking. The idea is that a .bank domain name would be so expensive that only banks would be able to afford them......
Phishing Attacks on the Rise
The number of unique phishing websites detected by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) rose to 55,643 in April 2007, a massive jump of nearly 35,000 from March.......
Internet Users Unfazed by Spam
Asked if the volume of spam in their inboxes had changed over the past few years, 37 per cent of email users said the number of unsolicited messages they received in their personal accounts has risen.....
MPs Son Guilty of VAT Carousel Fraud
The son of Labour MP Mohammed Sarwar has been convicted of an £850,000 money laundering scam involving imported mobile phones......
Judge asks "What is a Website?"
A judge who asked the meaning of a "website" has insisted that he is entirely "computer-literate" and that he was seeking an explanation "in the interests of justice".....
Fraudsters Feast on Credit Card Scam
Con men are using credit card details harvested from a bogus (and now defunct) gadget website - called www.instant-av.co.uk - to fund huge restaurant orders.......
Child Porn Accused Tell of Ordeal
Simon Bunce was one of 7,000 people whose credit cards had been used to buy pornography from an American website called Landslide. And in May 2004, he turned up at his local police station in Hampshire to be told he was a suspected paedophile.....
Estonia Hit by Moscow Cyber War
Estonia says the country's websites have been under heavy attack for the past three weeks, blaming Russia for playing a part in the cyber warfare......
Computer Equipment Seized in the Hunt for Madeleine
A Russian man questioned in Portugal over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has denied any involvement. IT expert Sergey Malinka, 22, was taken to a police station in Portimao and computer equipment was removed from his flat in Praia da Luz, Algarve.......
Pirate Software Leaves Companies Open to Attack
Businesses are leaving themselves open to attack by allowing counterfeit software programs to run on their corporate networks, security experts have warned......
Private Investigators Charged with Invading Privacy
Husband also charged with conspiring to cause unauthorised modification of a computer system in high profile divorce case........
Health Staff Bank Records Stolen
About 10,000 health workers in Cornwall have been warned that they could be the victims of fraud after their bank details were stolen......
UK needs E-crime Consensus
A House of Lords committee is considering recommending that the government create a centralised web site to handle the reporting of all electronic crimes.....
Businesses may have to Foot E-crime Unit Bill
A central e-crime co-ordination unit could be entirely funded by the private sector despite having the backing of all 43 chief constables in England and Wales.......