To avoid ID, more are mutilating fingerprints
Police say scarring can thwart detection
So desperate was one man to conceal his identity that he began biting his fingers and drawing blood while being booked.
Some have used eyedroppers filled with acid or pressed their fingers onto burning metal to blot their fingerprints. Others have spent thousands of dollars to hire shady doctors to surgically alter their fingertips, hoping to scar them beyond recognition.
This is how to built yourself a very robust personal Intelligence Agency. Every intelligence agency in the world tracks key words, information patterns, and news events from a central aggregated location.
If you ever have to deal with statements given to the police just after a traumatic event, then read this article.
There is a cynical defense attorney saying: “Anything you say will be misquoted and used against you.”…
The impression is that the earlier a statement is made, the more reliable it is. In reality, the earlier a statement is made, the less reliable it is. The effects of stress will confuse the statement and even cause temporary amnesia. Inaccuracies in the initial statement will convince authorities that the survivor is both a liar and a murderer. A lawyer must be immediately engaged to organize the statement.
This looks like a good example of poor operational security on the part of the drug company.
Drug firm investigated FDA officials
…private investigators working for a drug company gathered information on a high-ranking official at the Food and Drug Administration…
…Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who said it was “an outrage” and has demanded that Kroll tell him how often private detectives target public officials. He also had harsh words for Amphastar…
It shouldn’t surprise anybody that government officials are demanding that they be considered above suspicion and scrutiny when their decisions may cost one company billions of dollars and put billions into the pocket of another.
When a Windows PC, in its default configuration, is unable to find any wi-fi access point, it actively seeks one out. In doing this it broadcasts signals trying to connect with any network to which it has previously connected. It will cycle through all of the network identities (names) it has previously used. All of this is sent in the clear and can be captured by anyone with a simple wireless tool running in “sniffing mode” nearby. All of the network names it connected with are disclosed over a few minutes. Coupled with an online resource such as WiGLE, this information can be used to establish a profile of the PC owner – where he lives, works, eats, drinks coffee, his gym, his favorite no-tell motel, and more. Any network that PC has connected to using wi-fi is an open book.
The prevalence of grow-ops in many neighbourhoods brings with it many problems. An acquaintance of mine discovered one of the worst problems first-hand.
While doing neighbourhood inquires, he didn’t get an answer at the front door but heard something around the side of the house. He walked along the side of the house expecting to meet the homeowner there or in the backyard. As he stepped into the backyard his leg was pierced by a mantrap and a shotgun blast very nearly struck him. He managed to extricate himself from the spikes that had pierced his calf and flee before the aroused occupants finished him off.
I’m not sure that I believe all the stories about unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, but I do know what should stop this from becoming a disaster, and so does Tony Scotti, who has trained security drivers for decades. Please check-out his article on this topic.
A U.S.A online gun retailer, has published an excellent article explaining the differences between each generation of night vision gear.
Here’s your crash course in NVGs. Night vision technology is broken up into different levels. Gen 1 night vision is the gear you buy at Wal-mart for $500. Gen 2 costs a lot more and is widely used in the law enforcement sector. Gen 3 is what our military uses. Gen 4 is scary cool and the price of a Rolex.
While this article is about night vision devices for military use, the description of the characteristics of each generation and their associated costs is good background information for the Investigator contemplating the purchase of a night vision device for surveillance use.
The incinerator and shredder were the crook’s best friend prior to the computer era. Today, software is available for the same purpose. A search for “anti-forensics” turns-up a lot of usable information and guidance for those so-inclined.
Of particular interest should be the Metasploit Anti-Forensics Project. If you are unaware of the tools that come under the term, anti-forensics, then an article from CIO entitled, How Online Criminals Make Themselves Tough to Find, Near Impossible to Nab, should illustrate that Investigators now face anti-forensics as part of everyday life.
According to WowJobs.ca, the average salary of $38,307 for private investigators obtained from job postings nationwide are less than the nationwide average salary by 19%.
This indicates the average salary stated in job postings is $45,500 nationally and that on a national basis, Private Investigators earn about $7200 less than that average.
Sherlock Holmes with his deerstalker hat and magnifying glass is the most familiar image of the Investigator. However, this is a narrow-minded representation of the Investigator.
The investigative process does not belong to the police or private detective. Investigation is at the heart of every human activity. Scholars investigate. Antique dealers and appraisers investigate. Investors investigate. Medical Doctors investigate. In one way or another, we all investigate something or other. To investigate is to seek a solution. It is the application of information collection skills, logic, and analytical skills.
This is the last article of 2009. The next article will appear on Google-Free Wednesday, 6 January 2010.
… Facebook is a good source for data mining.
But one problem is that information gathered is not verified independently.
“These are not facts, just hearsay,” the former Criminal Investigation Department trainer said. “For digital photos, you can’t prove they are original as photos can be manipulated and put on the Web. You can’t authenticate them unless you get the original files from the photographer.”
He added: “This way of getting information is more trendy…but the information should be verified by conducting a proper investigation.”
Only when it is backed up will it be admissible as court evidence, he said.
… [it is] not inconceivable for someone to falsify their whereabouts on such sites.
“There really is no way of proving who was at the computer, which is the problem with any Internet-based investigation,” he said. “Today, one can update Facebook status or tweet Twitter from any device at any location.”
This is an excellent article on the value of searching social sites.
I have written previously on taking notes using audio, images, and handwritten notes. Quite a while back I wrote about video notes using a simple camcorder called the FlipUltra.
Now the Kodak Zi8 seems like a better pocket-sized point-and-shoot video camera. The digital image stabilization provides better video than the Flip. It has some hardware and software advantages over the Flip. It needs SD or SDHC memory cards which I see as an advantage even if it makes the Zi8 cost more.
I’m naturally skeptical, especially of what is reported in the news. The Toronto Star keeps putting a bodiless hand in a picture of the Mississauga Mayor, Hazel McCallion, and her son.
This Photoshop disaster hasn’t gone unnoticed, but it highlights the issue of how Investigators and Researchers use such pictures and how they cite collected images.
I don’t have the technical skills to verify the authenticity of every image I collect and use in reports, but I can, and do, report the source of the image and the date it was collected. For example, in this case, several versions of this image are in the public domain. If I use the image in a report, I must state its source and the date collected, as it may later be revealed as a fake or altered image.
I also use TinEye on such an image to see if an alternative version exists and to see where else the image might have appeared. For example, using TinEye on the cropped Toronto Star image I get a reference to the obviously Photoshopped image with the bodiless hand.