Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Put Your CSI On
The FBI operates 14 Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, or RCFLs. They have just published their RCFL Program's Fiscal Year 2007 Annual Report.
Here are some highlights from the report:
And Microsoft has developed the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) to assist law enforcement in their work. This is a thumb drive with 150 commands built in. When connected to a computer, it is set to work quickly in decrypting passwords, allowing content to be reviewed and analyzing internet use.
The thumb drives were distributed to law enforcement agencies in 15 countries beginning last June. They aren't available to private citizens. The intent is to allow law enforcement to more quickly handle computer forensics tasks, whether they have a budget to support a forensics lab or not.
The FBI operates 14 Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, or RCFLs. They have just published their RCFL Program's Fiscal Year 2007 Annual Report.
Here are some highlights from the report:
- During 2007, RCFL experts conducted 4,634 exams, processing 1,288 terabytes of information. (How much data is that? Consider this: all the books in the Library of Congress equal only about 20 terabytes!)
- RCFLs provided assistance to 685 agencies (608 were state and/or local).
- A total of 76,581 digital devices were examined (the most popular media by far—CDs, coming in at 37,424; followed by hard disk drives at 17,378; floppy disks at 11,781; and DVDs at 4,374).
- An interesting trend: the number of CDs, cell phones, and flash media devices examined doubled from the previous year.
- A total of 9,762 law enforcement personnel were trained, and, for the first time, RCFL instructors traveled overseas to share their expertise with approximately 169 government representatives (several RCFLs also hosted foreign visitors).
And Microsoft has developed the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) to assist law enforcement in their work. This is a thumb drive with 150 commands built in. When connected to a computer, it is set to work quickly in decrypting passwords, allowing content to be reviewed and analyzing internet use.
The thumb drives were distributed to law enforcement agencies in 15 countries beginning last June. They aren't available to private citizens. The intent is to allow law enforcement to more quickly handle computer forensics tasks, whether they have a budget to support a forensics lab or not.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Mortgage Fraud on Record Pace
In fiscal year 2007, which ended last September, there were 46,000 SARs on mortgage fraud. There were also 260 convictions resulting from SARs. We are six months into FY 2008 and there have been nearly 30,000 SARs so far.
The surge is in team-type activity where mortgage insiders, such as appraisers, real estate agents, loan officers, and lawyers conspire to commit "fraud for profit" schemes.
It is estimated that mortgage lenders will lose $2.5 billion due to mortgage fraud this year, according to the TowerGroup.
In fiscal year 2007, which ended last September, there were 46,000 SARs on mortgage fraud. There were also 260 convictions resulting from SARs. We are six months into FY 2008 and there have been nearly 30,000 SARs so far.
The surge is in team-type activity where mortgage insiders, such as appraisers, real estate agents, loan officers, and lawyers conspire to commit "fraud for profit" schemes.
It is estimated that mortgage lenders will lose $2.5 billion due to mortgage fraud this year, according to the TowerGroup.
2007 Internet Crime Stats
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has published its "2007 Internet Crime Report." IC3 is a joint operation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center.
The 2007 report reflects a $40 million increase in reported losses from 2006 to 2007. Those 2007 losses amounted to $240 million with internet auction fraud comprising of 35.7 percent of the losses. Merchandise that was never delivered amounted to nearly 25 percent of the complaints and this was up 31 percent from 2006.
Financial fraud - credit and debit card, checks and computer fraud complaints totaled nearly 18 percent of the 2007 complaints received by IC3.
Here are some statistics from the report.
Top 10 Cybercrime States:
California 15.8%
Florida 10.1%
New York 9.9%
Texas 7.0%
Illinois 3.6%
Pennsylvania 3.5%
Georgia 3.1%
Ohio 2.8%
Washington 2.8%
New Jersey 2.8%
Men complained of greater losses than women, losing $1.67 to each $1.00 lost by a woman.
Four hot areas for losses included scams on pets, checks, spam, and online dating sites.
A complete copy of the report is available from IC3, here.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has published its "2007 Internet Crime Report." IC3 is a joint operation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center.
The 2007 report reflects a $40 million increase in reported losses from 2006 to 2007. Those 2007 losses amounted to $240 million with internet auction fraud comprising of 35.7 percent of the losses. Merchandise that was never delivered amounted to nearly 25 percent of the complaints and this was up 31 percent from 2006.
Financial fraud - credit and debit card, checks and computer fraud complaints totaled nearly 18 percent of the 2007 complaints received by IC3.
Here are some statistics from the report.
Top 10 Cybercrime States:
California 15.8%
Florida 10.1%
New York 9.9%
Texas 7.0%
Illinois 3.6%
Pennsylvania 3.5%
Georgia 3.1%
Ohio 2.8%
Washington 2.8%
New Jersey 2.8%
Men complained of greater losses than women, losing $1.67 to each $1.00 lost by a woman.
Four hot areas for losses included scams on pets, checks, spam, and online dating sites.
A complete copy of the report is available from IC3, here.
