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Caution: Your VTL results may vary

2006-03-10T10:28:00.000-05:00

By Beth Pariseau, News Writer
10 Mar 2006 | SearchStorage.com

Interest in virtual tape libraries (VTL) and disk-based backup in general exploded in 2005. But as with any new technology, when evaluation and acquisition give way to practical implementation - when, in a way, the "honeymoon period" ends -- users encounter new pitfalls they may not have expected.
One such case happened at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). According to James Wonder, director of online technology, AIP implemented a Sepaton Inc. S2100 VTL between its 13 terabyte StorageTek D178 SAN and Qualstar Corp. tape library last year. But when the new data-hungry disk system was attached to the back end of his approximately 40 Sun Microsystems Inc. servers running Solaris 8 and 10, however, he uncovered a new bottleneck in his backup system -- the servers themselves.

"The VTL pulled data out so fast, it increased CPU overhead on my production servers," Wonder said. "Like my Web server, for example, our production machines get hammered. We hadn't been able to roll the VTL out in big chunks like we wanted to, and it was affecting my customers."

Wonder's solution to this problem was to implement local replication by Kashya Inc. in which an image of each production server is mounted on a separate Sun backup server, which then sends the data to the VTL.

"That way, my CPU on a customer-facing machine doesn't get affected and my network load doesn't get affected writing to the VTL," he said. "We also use Kashya to clone to tape after writing data to the Sepaton VTL."

Greg Schulz, analyst and founder of the StorageIO Group notes that this user is probably moving his bottleneck around. "In general, whenever you move or remove a bottleneck, in this case the slow tape in the backup process, you invariably will shift or cause a bottleneck elsewhere, unless you have taken adequate precautions."

"We have seen VTL implementation expose 'new' bottlenecks," said Brad O'Neill, senior analyst with the Taneja Group. "The tape drive used to be the slowest part of the backup environment, but post-VTL, the customer discovers that their network or CPU or disk arrays are too slow to feed the VTL at maximum performance."

"When I was evaluating VTL solutions, I certainly did try to gauge what adverse impact, if any, was the host processor experiencing while trying to keep up with the enormous appetite for data of the virtual library," said Mark Stewart, backup and recovery storage administrator at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas and a user of FalconStor Software Inc.'s VirtualTape Library.

"On the vast majority of my hosts, there was no such impact," he added. But, he said, a collection of "antique" [Windows] NT4 systems have been difficult to back up with the VTL.

"I am forced to back up these boxes across the front-side LAN," he said, "And their connections are paltry, anemic 100 Mb fast-Ethernet NICs. The bottleneck there is the network connection, not an unduly high processor workload."
Newly networked storage using a VTL, as opposed to direct-attached tape, may also be an issue, Schulz said. "If you are moving data over a network, you may be encountering CPU cycles being consumed by TCP/IP processing as well."

"It cannot be overstated how vitally important it is to have from the very beginning a dedicated team of storage engineers familiar with every aspect of the entire backup environment evaluating this technology," Stewart said, "in order to be absolutely certain that there are no 'gotcha!' moments after you've already spent a large amount of money on a new piece of equipment."

The experts weigh in

"Even though VTLs can theoretically let you unplug your tape library and plug them in instead, that may not be the best way to go about implementing one," said Curtis Preston, senior analyst for GlassHouse Technologies Inc..

Other possible VTL pitfalls, according to Preston, include backup software licensing issues.

"Depending on your backup product, there may be pricing challenges with how the software is licensed for a VTL, as opposed to a tape library," he warned. Preston advises looking at pricing for VTLs by capacity rather than by tape drives or cartridges, which is how Veritas Backup Exec works.

"But other backup software vendors may still charge for licensing per tape drive or even tape cartridge. One thing lots of people like to do with VTLs is make lots of really small virtual tapes -- that's something they could wind up paying a whole lot more for until backup software pricing catches up."

Another thing to watch out for, Preston said, is that treating a VTL exactly like a tape library doesn't mean it won't work, "but if you acknowledge, at least when setting it up, that you're not actually writing to tape, there might be things you can do differently to get the best performance from the VTL."

For example, many storage administrators use a technique when writing to tape libraries called multiplexing, which is the splitting up of streams of data to push the most data through to tape.

"It's not something you need to do with a VTL, and if you continue doing it when sending data to disk rather than tape, you might defeat the purpose of a VTL, which is faster restores," Preston said.

In general, "look at your backup process and configurations, and see if the reason you set them up that way still exists."

Another note to Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) users -- TSM doesn't multiplex, and most VTLs will support 32- or 64 virtual tape drives with some outliers at 96 or more. Meanwhile, it's common with TSM to be backing up hundreds of clients. Many TSM clients might require another disk pool in front of the VTL to prevent bottlenecks, according to Preston.

"Finally, if they weren't copying tapes before, and in my opinion most haven't been, and just have been sending originals off site," Preston added, "You can't eject tape from the VTL, so you need to figure out how to create a copy. It may be you have to buy a backup software module you didn't use before. It may come down to, 'I hope you're good at scripting.' "

"Another factor is what type of files, big or small, are being backed up -- as there is more performance overhead in opening and closing files -- so backing up lots of small files will have more of a pronounced impact," Schulz said

Added O'Neill, "Other factors include tweaking and tuning of the backup software. For example, the customer might need to adjust the block sizes via the backup software running on the backup server, which can make a huge difference, or turn off software compression."

Fujifilm Alerts Users to Dangers of ``Re-Certified'' Media Market; Investigation Finds Used Media Potential Source of Failures & Compliance Breaches

2006-03-10T10:24:00.000-05:00

VALHALLA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2006--Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc., a leading global provider of data storage tape cartridges, today announced the results of a study that found there may be serious risks to those companies buying and/or selling "re-certified" or used data storage tape media.

The Fujifilm study found that in addition to the risk of unintentionally passing along confidential company data, a large percentage of used media can be of questionable stability and often fails, making it unreliable for storing or archiving important data.

"Based on our findings, we would advise CIO's and IT managers to be aware of the risks associated with selling retired data tapes into the used market or using so-called re-certified tape in their own data centers," said Rich Gadomski, Vice President of Marketing, Fujifilm Recording Media Division. "In addition to buying media of unacceptable quality and performance, the uncontrolled practice of selling retired media can, in fact, allow your corporate data to end up in the wrong hands - potentially breaching corporate confidentiality policies and possibly violating government compliance regulations."

About the study

Fujifilm confirmed the dangers of selling and buying used media through a study conducted with Ovation Data Services, Inc., a leading provider of digital data management and data tape services with headquarters in Houston, Texas.

Ovation analyzed 30 "re-certified" LTO data tapes that were acquired on the open market. What Ovation found was that on many of the cartridges, while some initializing was performed on the initial section of tape to make the data inaccessible at the initial pass of a drive head, data in fact still existed on remaining portions of the tape.

Of the 30 tapes analyzed, eight tapes still contained data potentially recoverable through standard data recovery methods. In order to ensure existing data on a cartridge has been completely removed, traditional re-certifiers generally "degauss" the media. Degaussing is the process of "bulk erasing" data via exposure to a strong magnetic field.

While degaussing is an effective method on older tape technologies such as the early DLTtape format - which did not employ a magnetic servo track - it is not possible for newer tape technologies such as LTO and 3592 formats that do use magnetic servo tracks. These newer tape formats contain a factory-written, magnetic "servo track" that allows the finely tuned magneto heads of a storage drive to continuously monitor tracking for recording and reading of data across the hundreds of data tracks on the width of the tape. If a servo track is degaussed, the tape is rendered useless.

In order to fully erase existing data on an LTO format tape (or other tape utilizing a magnetic servo), it is necessary to "security erase" or completely overwrite the existing data across the entire length, a process that can take several hours. This process is not economically feasible for re-certifiers, and the results from the study indicate that, in fact, it was not performed at all for this particular set of cartridges.

The study also highlights the fact that there are no industry standards for "re-certifying" used media so, therefore, the quality and reliability of used media is questionable. While a company can request a detailed report on the condition, usage and age of the tape, this is rarely done. In addition to the eight tapes still containing data, two other tapes were so worn that the drives rejected the media outright (fatal load failures). Still other tapes had "tape alert flags," malfunctioning dust shutters, damaged gears, broken leaders or excessive debris.

Counterfeit tapes

Data center managers need to also beware of some resellers that are repackaging used tape and selling them as "new" in counterfeit manufacturer packaging. These counterfeit products are then sold to unsuspecting customers at a price below market value, usually via discount media or auction websites. Fujifilm has been made aware of several customers who found that they had purchased used tape sold as "new" tape, and continues to review its legal options when made aware of these illegal practices.

"Price competition and the availability of quality scanning technology have encouraged and enabled the counterfeit tape market," said Gadomski. "We are aggressively exposing this business as it may put our customers at risk and negatively impact the perception of our quality and value of our brand. It's important that companies realize that they may be contributing to the problem by selling their used tape - or by buying from un-authorized resellers and distributors."

Protecting your business

Whether you manage a large enterprise data center, or a small- or medium-sized business, the perceived cost savings from selling retired data storage media can be compelling.

The monetary gain from this practice, however, must be weighed carefully against the potential risks. Any data retention policy that causes a company to fall out of regulatory compliance can result in severe penalties that include fines, cessation of operations and/or criminal charges. CIOs and IT managers are encouraged to protect their businesses by immediately reviewing their media management policies from purchase to archive through to "end-of-life", ensuring that their companies:

1. Enact policies that ensure control of archived data before, during and after it leaves the data center and building;

2. Prohibit the buying or selling of used or recertified media to protect against potential breach of confidentiality policies or violation of government regulations;

3. Develop guidelines for confirming appropriate data deletion and destruction of retired media, or utilize third party companies that provide proper certification of destruction;

4. Specify "new, factory fresh" media when purchasing new media through a reseller. This will help to ensure that the media they receive is not merely re-certified or repackaged to appear as new.

Fujifilm actively works with partners, resellers and other manufacturers in the industry to ensure regulatory compliance is not compromised, and provides educational materials for CIOs and IT Managers that encourage "best practices" for handling, storing, transporting and disposing of data to protect a company's information assets.

For more information on Fujifilm data storage and other recording media products, please call 800-488-3854, or go to www.fujifilm.com/tapestorage. You can learn more about Fujifilm magnetic technologies at http://www.fujifilm.com/tech/TechStoreMagnetic.jsp.

A Glimpse at Wiretap Device Central to the Case

2006-02-18T11:12:00.000-05:00

By Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer

In a racketeering indictment issued last week, federal prosecutors contend that Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano helped develop a device called Telesleuth, which he then used in illegal wiretaps.

Telesleuth was used to convert voice recordings into digital files that could be stored on a computer for easier transcription, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. Prosecutors would provide no other details.

Jill A. Cossman, an attorney with Greenberg, Glusker, Fields, Claman, Machtinger & Kinsella, represented Pellicano in an attempt to trademark Telesleuth in 1995. The application describes the product as "computer hardware and computer software which will be used for the monitoring and/or recording and subsequent playback of telecommunications."

The application was ultimately abandoned.

Bertram Fields, a prominent entertainment lawyer and partner in the firm, used Pellicano's investigation services and is a subject of the ongoing federal investigation.

Brian Sun, an attorney representing Greenberg, Glusker, called the idea that trademark attorneys would have known of or condoned criminal uses for Telesleuth "preposterous."

"It was specifically intended to be marketed to law enforcement officials," he said.

Pellicano was a high-profile investigator and expert in audio analysis for individuals, law firms and law enforcement agencies in criminal cases. He formerly operated a Los Angeles-based company called Forensic Audio Lab.

Today, recorders that turn spoken words into computer-readable files are inexpensive consumer products. But they were not widely available in 1995, when Pellicano allegedly hired software developer Kevin Kachikian to produce Telesleuth.

"I'd guess that Telesleuth was pretty low-tech, perhaps a self-contained digital voice recorder that could be physically attached to a phone line in the field," said Phil Karn, a telecom security expert in San Diego. "A well-designed device could draw what little power it needs from the phone line without needing a battery that would have to be replaced."

Experts said a sophisticated programmer could easily have set Telesleuth to decode the touch tones of the target's dialed numbers or to read incoming numbers detected by caller-ID services.

Kachikian pleaded not guilty to several charges in the Pellicano case, including destruction of computer files, hardware and software related to Telesleuth. He is free on $100,000 bail. Neither he nor his attorney returned calls seeking comment.

Kachikian's personal website features two products designed for Pellicano: Forensic Image Sleuth and Forensic Audio Sleuth, described as tools to verify the authenticity of image and sound files. Pellicano holds a trademark for Forensic Audio Sleuth.

In the 1990s, Kachikian also briefly worked as a consultant for the Los Angeles Times, producing software that enabled Macintosh computers to download weather data.

According to the indictment, Telesleuth was housed in a case Pellicano ordered from Philadelphia-based Amuneal Manufacturing Corp., which specializes in containers that block electromagnetic emissions. The case was designed to prevent interference from power lines, which are often near phone-switching boxes.

"A shielded case would avoid causing noise on telephone circuits, noise that would be annoying … enough that someone would call the phone company to complain," said Steven M. Bellovin, a computer scientist at Columbia University and former security researcher at Bell Labs. "That sort of investigation — purely technical, not for fear of wiretaps — would likely uncover the box."

Pellicano never told Amuneal why he wanted the cases, but ordered 24, said Jim Flannagan, a sales manager for the company. Flannagan said he vividly recalled the 6-year-old order, because Pellicano became incensed when the job was delayed a day. "He went ballistic" in a phone conversation, Flannagan said. "He called me a liar. I just hung up."

Experts said the alleged taps could have been placed inside the phone company computer system, outside the subscriber's home or office, or on phone lines in several locations between those points.

In the Pellicano case, the government described insider access as a key step. Field technician Rayford Earl Turner, who retired from SBC — now called AT&T — in 2001, allegedly obtained subscriber data on Pellicano's targets from Teresa Wright, a sales support manager with SBC, California's largest local phone company.

Wright worked in the company's Wilshire Boulevard office until she was fired in November 2003. She pleaded guilty to fraud associated with Pellicano's alleged wiretaps.

*

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

Archive To Survive

2006-02-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

February 10, 2006
By Drew Robb

Archiving is certainly one of the hottest areas of storage right now. It lies at the heart of a subject that is near, though perhaps not so dear, to the heart of every storage manager — retaining a legion of records to comply with an ever-expanding roster of regulatory requirements.

"Compliant records data is presently estimated to grow over 60 percent per year, generating more than 1.6 PB of new storage capacity requirements in 2006," says Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies. "This represents the single fastest-growing application segment of the storage industry."

Part of the appeal may lie in the sheer scope of the topic. Ask some vendors what archiving is and they wax lyrical about disks. Ask others and it's all about tape. Bring up the subject at a conference and you might hear about the problems of e-mail storage or the compliance demands of the modern enterprise. And yet other views may cover the importance of search capabilities, the role of instant messaging (IM) in archive policy and how archiving is a central element of any information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy.

That's why the vendor acquisition frenzy surrounding archiving may seem a little confusing at first glance: OTG acquired by Legato in 2003 and subsequently gobbled up by EMC; Educom picked up by Zantaz; KVS by Veritas and then Symantec; Computer Associates' acquisition of ilumin Software Services; Symantec purchasing IMlogic; and Quest purchased AfterMail, to name just a few. These buy-outs forward vendor roadmaps encompassing a wide range of archiving products and possibilities.

"All the various archiving options such as active archiving, ILM and tape have their place," says John Webster, senior analyst and partner at Data Mobility Group.

Finding its Centera

As the array king, it's no surprise that EMC is one of the major champions of disk-based archiving. It advocates a three-pronged attack on the archiving space: smart/fast storage and retrieval at the high end, general array-based archiving in the middle, and tape library usage at the bottom of the pile.

"Centera is the choice if online access is needed with assured content authenticity at a TCO lower than a tape library," says Mark Avery, senior director of EMC Centera. "If all that is needed is speed to information, then CLARiiON may be the appropriate solution. If neither speed to information nor assured content authenticity is needed, then ADIC tape technology is an adequate solution."

Via Centera, EMC is going all out with its concept of authentic active archiving — archived information available on-line while assuring content authenticity. This comes under the broader heading of content addressed storage (CAS).

Centera is a purpose-built hardware and software storage platform for information archiving. CentraStar, Centera's operating environment, checks the authenticity of content, provides retention policy management capabilities and does single instancing, the storing of unique content only once. This platform has been strengthened with search and chargeback reporting capabilities based on technology OEM'ed from Norway-based Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST). CenteraSeek also allows fast cross-application advanced search of storage-based content metadata.

"Customers want to unlock the value in their long-term content, and that does not happen by storing it on tape or optical technology," says Avery. "With Centera, customers can afford to have disk that spins all the time, because it costs them no more and often less on a TCO basis than tape."

While EMC champions disk-based archiving, not everyone is convinced of its TCO claims.

"Long-term archival storage remains the realm of magnetic tape libraries," says Moore. "Today there is no truly cost-effective ILM strategy without a tape component."

Save Our Spam

Compliance is obviously a major driver of the market, perhaps more so in e-mail archiving than anywhere else.

In the past, storage managers were forced to restore and pull data from backup tapes in a costly and services-driven exercise that exposed firms to regulatory sanctions and unsuccessful litigation outcomes.

With new message management technology, there are now more cost-effective and efficient solutions to the problem. The market for messaging archiving continues to grow, driven in large part by the focus on regulatory and legal requirements to retain and discover e-mail.

"In 2005, we saw a large increase in demands for e-mail archiving as case law and regulatory pressures continued to force companies to retain e-mail as business records," says Mike Gundling, CA's vice president of product management. "Organizations are reeling from high-profile litigation and important legal priorities that are driving the need for e-mail discovery."

CA bought ilumin to fill out the archiving features of its BrightStor storage management line. Known as CA Message Manager, it offers advanced compliance and litigation support for enterprise e-mail archiving. Thus CA's strategy is to become a hardware agnostic one-stop shop for e-mail security (eTrust), backup (ARCserve) and archiving (CA Message Manager).

CA treads the middle ground between tape and disk. In its view, both play distinct roles. However, it reports that over 100 of its customers using optical jukeboxes have switched to disk-based WORM. Further, CA believes that active archiving is not a replacement for traditional backup.

"Organizations need to understand that active archiving is everything a backup solution cannot be," says Gundling. "But they need both archiving and backup."

Another vendor making a play in the e-mail arena is Mimosa Systems, based in Santa Clara, Calif. Mimosa NearPoint provides immediate mailbox and message recovery, disaster recovery, e-mail archiving and self-service search and access in one solution. NearPoint is disk-based, using SATA RAID and NAS appliances. It runs on a Windows 2003 server.

"Customers have realized that first generation e-mail archive products did not deliver value, so the e-mail archive market is now white hot," says Bob Spurzem, senior product manager at Mimosa.

The relevance of advanced e-mail functionality can be seen in the findings of a recent survey conducted by Osterman Research. E-mail management is front and center among enterprise concerns, with the top Exchange-based problems being the management of e-mail disaster recovery, the sheer size of the message stores, protecting e-mail databases and searching individual files for legal discovery.

"Enterprises are facing serious challenges across multiple areas of e-mail management," says Michael Osterman of Osterman Research. "The market is demanding solutions for holistic e-mail data management that go beyond a single feature or function."

Storing or Accessing?

The axis of attention in archiving, then, appears to have shifted. The traditional methodology — dump all those old tapes in a closet or onto a rickety old array — is under attack.

"Archiving is not about storage, it's about access," says Michael Howard, chairman and CEO of OuterBay Technologies, which was acquired earlier this week by HP.

Like EMC and CA, his company is talking up active archiving — but with a Very Large Database (VLDB) slant. The generally bloated state of databases, it seems, has gone to a whole new level of late. OuterBay reports customers with multi-terabyte or even multi-petabyte databases. For example, one VLDB customer has DB tables of one terabyte. Another archives 3 TB of database transactions per year.

In response, the company has released OuterBay Enterprise Edition and Compliance Edition. The latter is a self-contained XML archive with added audit capabilities, data integrity features, data lineage and WORM storage device integration.

"We're seeing more and more customized applications in enterprises with large scale databases," says Ray Paquet, an analyst with Gartner. "Enterprises should look to database archiving applications to manage accelerating growth, increase enterprise application performance and meet compliance requirements."

Disk Head Debate

Many of the solutions referenced in this article advocate disk-based archiving. Yet the popular wisdom is that disks should not be used for long-term storage as the disk heads could stick. Copan, for one, claims a solution to the problem with its Disk Aerobics technology, which powers up disk drives once a month to keep them active and reduce failures.

"It is true that disk drives are not well suited to be unplugged and stored on the shelf," says Spurzem. "Long-term data storage is better suited for tape, and to optical if the capacities are a fit for the application."

He believes, though, that tape and disk can be combined into a cost-effective combination for backup and archiving. Disks supply the near-term storage and tape deals with more lengthy retention requirements.

The role of tape in the archiving hierarchy is being further strengthened by the latest feature sets. Tape technologies such as LTO and SDLT offer increased capacity and better security. Encryption, in particular, is seen as a major step forward in the usefulness of tape as an archiving medium.

"Encryption is making its way into the tape designs, positioning the tape industry for an explosion in compliance and archival applications," says Moore.

For more storage features, visit Enterprise Storage Forum Special Reports

Work begins on ASU forensics facility

2006-02-11T09:54:00.000-05:00

By Deborah Willoughby
Montgomery Advertiser

Ground was broken Friday for a new $10.5 million building at Alabama State University that will help solve crimes and train a new generation of forensic scientists.

ASU President Joe A. Lee, who defined forensic science as the application of sciences to the law, said there's a great need for scientists to solve crimes.

"There are church burnings in Alabama right now," Lee said, talking about how physical evidence left at the scenes of church arsons, including tire tracks, may help break the cases.

Students and officials at the groundbreaking for the 50,000-square-foot Forensic Sciences Facility focused on the partnerships of state forensics employees working in the same building as ASU chemistry and biology students.

The building, which will be completed in 18 months, will have state laboratories, a mock courtroom, an instrumentation laboratory and a criminal logistics lab. It's a joint project of the state Department of Forensic Sciences and ASU, mostly paid for by voter-approved bonds, with $3 million coming from state funds.

"It will provide the latest in technology for our state laboratories, but will also create a trained pool of potential employees that we need in this critical area," said F. Taylor Noogle, director of the state Department of Forensic Sciences.

Jennifer York, an Alabama State student from Selma, was impressed by plans for the new building. York, a junior studying business administration, said, "This building will bring more students and more opportunities to the university."

ASU also had its 106th Founder's Day convocation on Friday.

Personal Disaster Recovery Software: An essential part of business disaster recovery plans

2006-02-09T10:12:00.000-05:00

By Don Lewis

Traditional and obvious methods of protecting business PCs and the digital content they contain do not provide a complete and fool-proof solution for content protection or successful recovery in the event of a PC disaster. If a disaster strikes, the requirements to recover the PC to its prior working state can be costly for the business owner. Losing vital data files can be devastating, resulting in extra man hours, extra money spent and decreased employee productivity. American businesses lose billions of dollars per year due to data loss. As more vital business data is being stored in smaller spaces due to an increase in a mobile and widely dispersed workforce (one that is equipped with laptops), disaster prevention and recovery plans are often overlooked or outdated and do not protect against many of the newer types of loss scenarios.

While many businesses have a documented disaster recovery plan, many do not take into account the possibility that existing methods of backup may not result in 100 percent data and system recovery. According to a recent survey, 34 percent of companies fail to test their backups, and of those that do, 77 percent have found back-up failures.

Many disaster recovery plans also rely on the central office or company headquarters to perform backups on a routine, predefined schedule (typically once a day). They fail to account for how to protect business data on employee laptops, which are not located at the corporate office. With all the potential problems that can affect a PC, simply saving data files to external media (i.e. a floppy disk or CD) on an intermittent basis is no longer an adequate solution to recover from data loss, nor is strictly relying on occasional scheduled off-site, tape or server data storage methods.

As with any backup plan, the goal is to recover all of the data, and the success rate largely depends on how current the most recent backup date-time stamp is. Most computer users rely on backups as their safety net in the event of data loss. Ontrack Research indicates that 80 percent of its data loss customers regularly back up their data, only to find that the data is less than adequate at the critical moment they need to restore it. Backups assume that hardware and storage media are in working order, that the data is not corrupted and that your backup is recent enough to provide full recovery. In reality, hardware and software do fail and backups don’t always contain the most current data.

For example, let’s say a business user, which we will call our mobile “road warrior,” is using a laptop that isn’t under the full protection of the automated backup system at the corporate office. However, he does backup his system on a regular basis to external media (floppy, CD, USB external drive, etc.). Maybe he even subscribes to an online backup service as a measure of redundancy. While these are recommended practices and may even be sufficient under many circumstances, they do not ensure 100 percent data recovery in all situations. What if our road warrior is traveling and his operating system crashes while at the airport terminal? Since his operating system cannot load, he cannot access their external media (assuming they brought it with them) nor can he obtain Internet access to recover his data from the online service they subscribe to. So now what?

A more complete solution that accounts for both a greater number of data loss scenarios and offers the ability to recover a system to a more current date-time stamp would include the installation of personal disaster recovery software.

What Is Personal Disaster Recovery Software?
Personal disaster recovery software stores incremental and compressed backup points (snapshots) on the PC in a hidden protected partition, which is not dependent on the operating system to function. Incremental backups store updates as the changes occur on the system. More specifically, incremental backup points track the changes of the index file and the changes at the sector-level. Often when a Windows file gets updated, only a few sectors will be modified; and only these modified sectors are recorded in an incremental backup. This method helps to minimize the size required for tracking the changes on the system. As the size of these backup points is very small, users can restore their systems very quickly. In addition, the small size of the incremental backups provide small recent snapshots which are stored more frequently than other backup methods which backup data on a set and less frequent schedule. The data recovery success rate is significantly better when recovering from a recent incremental backup point rather than relying on a complete static image that has an older date-time stamp associated with it.
Personal disaster recovery software not only protects data files, but also backs up all system files. Everything is done automatically in the background without manual scheduling or prompting. When needed, users restore their system to a selected, saved incremental backup point that is more recent than any external backup, and which recovers everything on the system. This process ensures a higher success rate in recovering the system and saves time because two previous functions, recovering the OS and recovering the data are now combined into one recovery operation. Under the road warrior’s data loss scenario above, it is the utilization and access of a recently saved snapshot that gives them the freedom to quickly recover their system to its most recent status without needing outside assistance.

In addition, personal disaster recovery software should offer businesses other types of recovery mechanisms such as complete backup recovery from an existing static system image either stored on the same PC or on external media such as a USB-based external hard drive or stored across multiple CDs / DVDs which are self booting. This option complements other existing backup methods and minimizes the effect of data loss in the event the user experiences hardware failure (i.e. hard drive crashes).

How Does Personal Disaster Recovery Work?
Upon installation of the software, the existing partition is resized and a proprietary partition is created. Hidden from Windows OS, an entry into the Master Boot Record (MBR) ensures that this software always loads prior to loading the OS. In case of a corrupted OS, the software will then be able to launch in a “pre-OS” console and restore the entire hard drive to a healthy state.

Once installed, the user can create a complete (static) backup image similar to the factory image that ships with most PCs and then choose where to store this image (i.e. on the hard drive or on external media). Once created, the user has the ability to configure the frequency of storing the incremental backup points which best suits their needs. There are several methods of storing the incremental backups, but the preferred method restores the entire system on the sector-level and not the file-level. By restoring on the sector-level, the software is not bounded by any limitations of the Windows File System.

PC users need a complete security protection and disaster recovery plan to ensure their digital content is always safe. Just like large enterprises, small businesses and businesses with a large distributed workforce should think of their recovery solution in strategic terms. All of the protection methods in place today and as mentioned above are recommended, but to round out the protection and offer redundancy with a simple-to-implement recovery plan, it is best to choose software that offers incremental backup data protection and provides instant recovery.

Don Lewis is marketing manager at FarStone Technology (Irvine, CA).

www.farstone.com

Second Creek Detects Cyber Evidence

2006-02-02T10:02:00.000-05:00

Posted 2/2/2006 06:00 AM

Barboursville firm helps businesses protect themselves from missing data.
Story by Danny Forinash Email | Bio

BARBOURSVILLE -- Second Creek is developing itself as a Sherlock Holmes of the digital age.

Last year, the Cabell County technology firm began working with a large corporation that suspected one of its employees was using laptops to communicate with and show information to a competitor.

The employee would use "scrubbers" to clear the files, but Second Creek found the remnants of e-mail attachments that had been sent at the same time the employee made an appointment. The recipient was the competitor, and the attached file names matched confidential file names. The employee admitted to the wrongdoing.

"The employee lost big time," said David Irvin, a network engineer and forensic analyst with Second Creek. "He settled after the evidence was recovered and he was sure we hadn't hacked into his e-mail."

Ray Shepard, an attorney with the Maryland firm Ober|Kaler and an outside counsel for Second Creek, said the need for Second Creek's services, as well as other similar services, "has become pretty obvious."

"Electronic discovery and computer forensics are areas lawyers are becoming more and more familiar with because of the way in which clients create and maintain electronic data," Shepard said. "They are realizing more and more they need to be able to access and use electronic data like they used paper in the past."

Digital evidence, Shepard said, "is extremely volatile." In today's legal system, though, such information is just as important as information found in a file cabinet. That's why businesses and attorneys need professionals who can recover the evidence.

An investment firm wasn't completely aware of the need last year, when a judge asked the company to show all prudent e-mails for a case brought against it. The company couldn't do so and thereby made misrepresentations about the existence of documents when more e-mail later surfaced. The judgment against it amounted to $1.2 billion.

A cigarette manufacturer didn't value the need, either. When the federal government asked the company to present e-mail, top executives continued deleting the overwriting certain files. The company received more than $1 million in fines.

Electronic data can be tricky, and computer users shouldn't presume Web information leaves the computer when they sign off, e-mail information leaves the computer when they hit "send" or files are gone when they hit "delete."

"It depends on the environment," said Irvin. "Once an e-mail is constructed and sent, it doesn't mean it's going to be gone anytime soon. It's extremely possible it's still there. Even using tools to delete files, if you're not properly trained to do so, can leave residual files."

Second Creek's job is finding and recovering any remaining and pertinent data not just from personal computers, but also from CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, digital phones, ZIP drives and game systems. It retrieves information under court orders, helps preserve and protect electronic data and helps make certain a company's retention capabilities are in line with that company's needs.

"Electronic discovery can be very expensive if you don't plan ahead," Shepard said. "It's very costly and very slow."

Second Creek works with both defendants and plaintiffs.

"We can help employers understand how to protect themselves from disgruntled employees and sexual harassment suits," Irvin said as an example.

In many instances, Shepard said, companies are concerned about employees using their computers to embezzle or for other forms of misconduct, and the offenders often think their activity isn't detectable.

"Many don't know the information is actually recorded on the PC and is probably somewhere in cyberspace," Shepard said. "Deleted data is often where the smoking gun is."

Deleted data can remain on a computer for years, Irvin said. Deleting a file just means the file is open for overwriting. However, that doesn't mean the information will be overwritten. Often, overwriting occurs one piece at a time. These "slack spaces" represent the nooks and crannies in which investigators find pieces of evidence.

However, "a lot of people are not handling the evidence properly, and it becomes inadmissible," Irvin said.

Under controlled conditions, Second Creek employs a device that creates a "forensic clone." It is a verifiable bit-by-bit copy, Irvin explained. Digital signatures called "hashes" are similar to DNA.

"Without that tool, you're just dealing with a regular copy," Irvin said. "It can't be guaranteed to be an exact copy. It's not a forensically sound copy."

Irvin also has the tools to view files once they are in a sterile environment. One cannot tamper with the information without leaving "footprints." Someone examining Irvin's work could see everything Irvin did, and any deviation would show in the log files.

"The big thing is making sure the information is admissible in court," Second Creek CEO John Sammons said.

The evidence goes through a "strict chain of custody," Sammons said. The storage is secure and tamper-proof. The information found is "strictly confidential."

Forensic computing also needs to be an independent process. If in-house information technology professionals do the work, the work product isn't privileged and is subject to discovery by the opponent. If a company such as Second Creek is working directly with an attorney, the work product becomes privileged information.

Second Creek was born when Information Technology Associates and Second Creek Web Design merged last spring. The company, which also deals with networking, information technology and Web design, recently moved from Huntington to Barboursville. It has nine full-time employees and six part-time employees, including law enforcement professionals and computer engineers. Sammons himself spent 10 years with Huntington police.

Information technology and networking still make up most of Second Creek's business, but "we expect a big shift," Sammons said.

The company has worked with about six clients concerning forensic computing. Most cases come from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas, but Sammons has noticed an increase in local interest.

"It's a fairly new field," Irvin said. "A lot of clients don't know they need us."

Second Creek also is working with Marshall University, which offers one of the only forensic science master's programs in the country, to keep up with the latest technologies. In turn, Second Creek provides training and helps develop the program.

Shepard said the legal system is expecting amendments and modifications at the federal level regarding civil procedure as it specifically relates to electronic data. Attorneys will be expected to accommodate for electronic data by Dec. 1, 2006, meaning they must do all they can to protect digital evidence as they now do physical evidence.

"The legal community is playing catch-up, as usual, to technology," he said. "But they are catching up, and as they do, the more relative companies like Second Creek are going to become."

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media.

Inbreeding Forensic Solutions

2006-01-27T12:02:00.000-05:00

The inbreed revolution is upon us. PDA devices and cell phones have merged to create a new powerful device that is causing a new addiction in society. With this new revolution in technology, a new evolution is occurring in crimes where these devices are now playing more than just an accessory role.

Paraben Corporation’s goal to keep up with today’s blurring lines between cell phones and PDAs continues on with the inbreeding of two of its premier technologies: PDA Seizure and Cell Seizure into Device Seizure. Paraben Corporation has developed tools to assist Law Enforcement, Corporate Security, and Digital Investigators in their forensic investigations and this dedication continues with this innovative merging of technologies.

Paraben’s Device Seizure brings together PDA Seizure’s mastered support of the Palm, Windows CE, Pocket PC, and BlackBerry operating systems with Cell Seizure’s evolving support of Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, LG, Samsung, and SIM Cards. The merger will add even more support for some of the latest cell phone models as well as support for the robust Symbian operating system used in both cell phones and PDAs. Device Seizure is the premier forensic tool for any handheld digital device.

Along with the release of Device Seizure, Paraben is also pleased to announce the release of new advanced training classes: Cell Seizure Advanced Forensics and SIM Card Forensics.

Paraben was founded in 1999. Paraben quickly became a leader in specialized computer forensic software with its release of PDA Seizure in early 2002. Since then, Paraben has released many other computer forensic software titles, training classes, and hardware.

Paraben has its corporate headquarters in Pleasant Grove, Utah with a satellite office in the Washington D.C. area. Paraben offers its training classes in locations throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, & Australia. With over 15 years of computer forensics experience, Paraben’s Executive team continues to strive to for a paradigm change in the field of computer forensics

Related Links

www.paraben-forensics.com/handheld_forensics.html

SEPATON Announces Online Data Replication for Electronic Vaulting; SEPATON Site(2) Brings Extensibility to Disaster Recovery

2006-01-26T12:57:00.000-05:00

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 25, 2006 -- SEPATON, Inc., the leader in high-performance data protection solutions, today announced that it is bringing "NOTAPES" to disaster recovery with its new Site(2) electronic vaulting software designed to run on its S2100(R)-ES2 Virtual Tape Library (VTL) appliance and protect a company's business-critical data. SEPATON Site(2) cost-effectively replicates data from data center(s) over a WAN to remote location(s) for maximum data protection and security. Integrated with a backup application, Site(2) eliminates labor-intensive tasks, automates error prone manual tape-handling processes, and reduces recovery time due to unplanned interruptions.

"In recent years there have been numerous public accounts of lost or stolen tapes and the resulting corporate pressure to solve data loss. The risks are high - lost revenue and productivity, increase in customer dissatisfaction, fines and penalties, and damaged corporate reputations," said Mike Worhach, president and CEO, SEPATON, Inc. "By replicating data to an S2100 at a remote site, Site(2) enables the entire data protection cycle to be automated - from backup to off-site storage."

Site(2) utilizes SEPATON's VTL to replicate data to a remote VTL site where it is stored as a disk-based virtual tape. The replication process is efficient, occurring independently of the production servers and leverages the existing WAN infrastructure to send the cartridges to the remote location. Data that has been backed up using electronic vaulting is kept secure and available online for retrieval and restoration via the WAN.

Highlights of SEPATON Site(2) include:

Fast Online Recovery - Site(2) removes the complexity of configuring and managing the electronic vaulting process via an easy to use Replication Automation Interface which automates common electronic vaulting tasks. In addition, advanced scheduling and bandwidth management functions allow the user to specify vaulting windows and bandwidth usage to optimize the vaulting process. This automated process, combined with detailed reporting of all backup and recovery operations, gives administrators a complete view of their data vaulting operations.

Easily Integrates into Existing Data Protection Environments - Site(2) works with all major backup applications including Veritas NetBackup, EMC Legato and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. The application automates the entire vaulting process thus removing the element of human error from backup and recovery operations, and freeing IT from the time-consuming task of managing and vaulting physical tape media. Site(2) leverages the backup applications media management capabilities to track both physical and virtual tapes to solve the critical challenges of long-term archiving, compliance, and disaster recovery.

Flexible and Resilient Architecture -- Site(2) is a flexible solution that can be implemented to achieve Recovery Time Objectives (RTO). From simple electronic vaulting to a clustered architecture where the secondary site assumes the processing of production data in the event of a disaster, Site(2) offers a complete data protection solution that integrates seamlessly into existing backup environments. The technology supports a range of multi-site options including: one-to-one--one secondary Site(2) VTL, having no production activity, is dedicated to support one primary Site(2) VTL; many-to-one--many primary Site(2) VTLs are protected by one secondary Site(2) VTL, and one-to-many--one primary Site(2) VTL sends data to multiple secondary Site(2) VTLs.

SEPATON Site(2) is a product in SEPATON's exclusive ReadyRestore(TM) family of data protection applications built on the SEPATON ContentAware(TM) architecture. This revolutionary architecture enables customers to leverage investments in existing backup applications by adding new functionalities such as content-based compression, synthetic full backup and other advanced capabilities, without forklift upgrades.

Pricing and Availability

Site(2) is shipping now and is priced at $10,000 per site for the software license and installation.

About SEPATON, Inc.

Based in Marlborough, MA, SEPATON, Inc. develops and markets a family of award-winning data protection solutions to medium and large data centers that must manage multiple terabytes of data daily. SEPATON's data protection solutions integrate seamlessly into existing customer environments. The SEPATON S2100 was named 2004 backup hardware product of the year by Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com. The company is privately held with investments from Jerusalem Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Valhalla Partners. For more information, visit www.sepaton.com.

SEPATON and S2100 are registered trademarks of SEPATON Corporation. Site(2), ReadyRestore and ContentAware are trademarks of SEPATON Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Handwriting analyst has eye for reading between the words

2006-01-26T12:09:00.000-05:00

DUXBURY -- Sarah Holmes recently brought her family's business to Duxbury. It's a rather unusual line of work: Holmes is a third-generation handwriting examiner.

Following the pen strokes of her mother and grandmother before her, she is vice president of Pentec, a handwriting analysis firm founded by her mother, Ruth, 22 years ago in Michigan. In April, Holmes set up shop in Duxbury, opening a Pentec office on St. George Street.

Pentec's clientele is decidedly not local. It has, Holmes says, included high-profile individuals such as Dr. Jack Kevorkian and national companies with household names -- she lists a few, but says confidentiality rules keep them from being published -- as well as lawyers and private investigators.

Holmes believes that every person's handwriting is as unique as a fingerprint, and that penmanship can divulge a lot about a person's nature. It is, she says, a window to ''the landscape of the mind."

''Once the paper and ink come into contact," says Holmes, 30, ''it's just an incredible reflection of the individual who's creating the trail of ink."

Despite some social recognition of the craft -- Monday was National Handwriting Day -- following this unconventional career path has not always been easy for Holmes. Handwriting analysis is a controversial field, largely unregulated, and divided into several factions.

For starters, there are two distinct types of analysis. Document examination deals specifically with forensic science. Professional document examiners are typically scientists who are trained to study every part of a document -- the handwriting, the ink, watermarks, even typewriter ribbons -- to determine whether a document is authentic and whether a signature has been forged.

The other type of analysis is known as graphology, which is the study of handwriting and how it relates to behavior. Graphologists believe that a person's penmanship and writing style reflect their personality. This kind of analysis has not been recognized by the mainstream scientific community, and the current FBI forensics handbook discredits the practice. But graphology has never been written off completely; some private companies use it as a tool to screen job applicants, and lawyers occasionally hire handwriting consultants to help them select sympathetic jurors for a trial.

Holmes and her mother -- who is still based in Michigan -- do work in both categories.

When they analyze someone's handwriting, they evaluate attributes like the size and shapes of the letters, the pressure that was put on the pen, and how the writer used the space on a page. For example, large, bold letters signify a personality of the same nature, they say, someone who's confident and enjoys being in the spotlight. Smaller writing can signify a person who's more reserved and shy, according to the Holmeses. The style and angle of the writing, the connections between letters, spaces between words, and direction of each pen stroke can reveal all different kinds of personality traits, according to Holmes.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE by clicking the title link above.

NYC considering surveillance cameras modeled on London system

2006-01-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK (AP) _ New York is considering installing surveillance cameras in Lower Manhattan in its fight against terrorism, similar to the "ring of steel" in London's financial district.

A team of New York Police Department experts visited London in the fall to look at its system of closed-circuit cameras, which are posted at various points in its financial district and near landmarks. Those cameras helped London police to quickly provide images of suspected bombers during the terror attack in the London Underground last summer.

The NYPD is still in the discussion stage regarding the installation of surveillance cameras that would be pointed at tunnels, bridges and subway stations in Lower Manhattan. The city already has 1,000 cameras in its sprawling network of subways and commuter rail facilities, with plans to add another 1,000 surveillance cameras and 3,000 motion sensors over the next three years.

DNA-test oversight is sought

2006-01-26T10:21:00.000-05:00

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 26, 2006

A state committee overseeing DNA and other forensic testing would have broader ability to review problems with private laboratories used by the Illinois State Police under legislation introduced this week in the General Assembly.

The Tribune has reported on a series of cases marked by delays in testing at private labs, including the case of Shawn Thigpen, an ex-convict who remained free last year long enough to allegedly kill a 14-year-old boy in Lincoln Park.

Authorities have said that evidence could have been matched to Thigpen's DNA profile much earlier because it had been in the statewide database for at least six months.

Clerical error blamed

State police have blamed a clerical error at a private lab for that delay.

Illinois uses private labs in an attempt to minimize an ongoing backlog in DNA testing here.

State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-La Grange) introduced the bill Tuesday, calling the reports of delays disturbing.

"It's a serious, serious situation," Durkin said. "It's an important issue for the state, and it hasn't been completely addressed."

The proposal would give more responsibility to the 15-member Illinois Laboratory Advisory Committee, which is made up of appointed attorneys and scientists from various Illinois departments. Durkin said the bill calls for more reporting to the committee, which makes recommendations to the General Assembly and the governor.

Any laboratory authorized to do testing for the state would be required to report to the committee on "instances of errors in the performance of forensic laboratory examination procedures," the proposal states.

Durkin said he would like that to include a report on what occurred in the Thigpen case, which he called "very troubling."

Thigpen allegedly raped a teenage boy in Berwyn in March 2004, and a DNA sample was taken from the victim and sent out for testing. Thigpen's profile was in the statewide database by February 2005 because of a prior felony conviction, records show, but it was not matched to the earlier case until after he allegedly killed 14-year-old Michael Williams in August.

Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said the delay was caused by a private lab, Orchid Cellmark in New Jersey, sending back results that did not indicate that a DNA profile had been recovered from evidence in the 2004 assault. Orchid Cellmark has released a statement saying the company has implemented procedures to prevent a future mistake.

Accreditation at issue

Durkin's proposal also would mandate that Illinois only send cases out to labs fully accredited by the International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO. Durkin said the international group is more independent than the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, which also gives accreditation to laboratories.

Barbara Lindheim, a spokeswoman for Orchid Cellmark, said the company has two laboratory sites, one in Nashville, which has received ISO accreditation, and one in Dallas, which is to undergo ISO inspection in May. Illinois now sends samples to both labs, Lindheim said.

State police had no immediate comment Wednesday. Trent has said his ultimate goal is to have state police do all of their own processing within 30 days.

Trent said he expects the backlog and the need for outsourcing to be reduced as technology advances and more automation is introduced into the state labs. Gov. Rod Blagojevich secured more than $2 million in fiscal 2004 and 2005 to help deal with the backlog, but state police leaders are not pushing for major new funding to hire more technicians and analysts.

But that could change if another bill introduced in the General Assembly progresses. State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) has sponsored the proposed legislation, which would require anyone arrested in connection with a felony to submit a DNA sample, not just those convicted.

That new requirement would boost incoming samples dramatically and again swamp the system, Trent told the Tribune in an interview last month.

"If we were to do that in Illinois, while it probably would solve more crimes, it would create a huge backlog for us without a substantial investment in both facilities and personnel," he said.

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jcoen@tribune.com

Smartcatch TV aims at telltale behaviour

2006-01-26T10:20:00.000-05:00

By Stephen Dabkowski
January 27, 2006

SEVERAL State Government authorities will test a security camera system that has "intelligent" software to alert police to behaviour that could betoken a criminal or terrorist act.

NEC Business Solutions' "Smartcatch" is used in the New York subway system and at airports across the US.

NEC has been sworn to secrecy about the identity of the authorities paying for the tests, believed to start next month at three sites.

Smartcatch allows the closed-circuit television system to alert security or the police if it detects a range of suspicious behaviours, including unattended objects, a stationary vehicle, loitering, human "tailgating" and someone entering an exit or no-go zone.

Executive manager of enterprise solutions at NEC Business Solutions, Milton Purcell, says the technology is taking video surveillance from two dimensions to three-dimensional behaviour tracking.

"Twelve million dollars has been invested in the research and development of this technology and it is being taken up around the world, particularly in the United States. The aim is to make Australia a much safer place," he said.

"The reality with CCTV is that only about 5 per cent of the video footage is ever viewed live and mostly it is used as a forensic tool after an event has happened, to reconstruct what happened.

"What Smartcatch allows video surveillance technology to do is to stop a potential terrorist or criminal act from occurring in the first place."

Mr Purcell believes the technology will in 18 months be able to analyse whether the same person comes regularly to an area to scout for a criminal act and leaves a scene by running or walking.

"Smartcatch can detect nine different suspect behaviours and the applications are endless," Mr Purcell said. "It is not just for high-security installations, it is also for the entrance of any large corporation or hotel, or even for use in a major pedestrian thoroughfare.

"It's like every CCTV can now have a brain to match its surveillance capabilities. Of course, the final decision on whether to take action on what Smartcatch alerts them to is taken by the humans on the spot."

NEC Business Solutions is also working to finalise a system that recognises faces and matches them to photographs of wanted or dangerous people. "What biometric facial recognition can do is monitor for potentially undesirable people … It can immediately check whether the person entering a secure area in an office setting has the right authorisation or even whether the correct person is sitting in front of their computer, accessing sensitive information," Mr Purcell said

"The new generation of intelligent CCTV is now here, driven by the demands of global security concerns."

Small-Town Watch: More hamlets put up police-surveillance cameras using federal grant money

2006-01-20T12:02:00.000-05:00

BELLOWS FALLS, Vt.

This snowy village, in the shadow of Fall Mountain, is the kind of place where a little of anything usually suffices. There are just eight full-time police officers, two chairs in the barbershop and one screen in the theater. A little of anything - except surveillance cameras. Bellows Falls has decided it needs 16 of those.

Using federal grant money, police plan to put up the 24-hour cameras at such spots as intersections, a sewage plant and the town square. All told, this town will have three fewer police-surveillance cameras than the District of Columbia.

Similar cameras are already up in the Virginia communities of Galax and Tazewell and in tiny Preston, Md., with two police officers and five police cameras. An interest in public, permanent video surveillance - as well as the federal dollars to pay for it - seems to be flowing down to the lowest levels of American law enforcement.

The growth of small-town surveillance-camera systems has not received much notice. But it seems to be changing the way such small places are policed.

"People don't notice things" as they used to in Bellows Falls, said Keith Clark, the village's police chief. Instead, "now, technology is there to do that."

Large police departments have only started to embrace public surveillance in the past six years or so, long after privately owned cameras became ubiquitous at banks, ATMs and stores. Electronic networks have gone up in places such as Baltimore, Chicago and New York.

Despite the popularity of these systems, critics question whether they are any good at stopping crimes in progress. In Washington, for instance, the worst offense caught on police cameras seems to have been a car break-in - in 2001.

"Nothing will be happening most of the time. Multiply that by several cameras with nothing happening, all the time. It's very difficult for any human being to be vigilant," said Michael Scott, the director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, which gets federal financing to write guidelines for police procedures.

Small-town surveillance would seem to offer only a whole lot more nothing. Still, some smaller police departments have been drawn in: An informal search turned up 17 with 100 or fewer officers that either had a surveillance system or planned to put one up. All but two of these departments had either created or expanded their system since 2001.

Spokesmen for the departments of Justice and Homeland Security said they were unable to compile information about how many small-town camera programs the agencies had financed, or how much had been spent.

Although some critics say that there are hidden costs for camera upkeep and data storage, the market for small-town surveillance does not seem to be flagging. This year, a San Diego company called U.S. Relay will start offering a kind of pay-per-view surveillance, in which public cameras are installed and police departments pay to watch them.

NAMM06: First Showing For Steinberg WaveLab 6

2006-01-19T17:56:00.000-05:00

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NAMM06: First Showing For Steinberg WaveLab 6
Respected audio editing and mastering software shipping now with new features 19-Jan-06

Steinberg have introduced the latest version of its industry-standard WaveLab editing and mastering software. WaveLab 6 offers a range of exciting new features including the impressive new Spectrum Editor, enhanced editing and signal processing functions, advanced audio I/O handling and much more.

Claus Menke, Steinberg’s Director of Product Management told us this about the lastest version,
“Version 6 extends the strengths that have made WaveLab a world-standard application for editing, mastering and restoration. The new features put WaveLab well and truly into a class of its own, especially at its price-point.”

We’ve listed the main points of the new version below for easy reference…

The new WaveLab Spectrum Editor provides exciting new restoration and editing possibilities, including easy removal of disturbances and unwanted noise. This extremely versatile editor offers high-quality linear phase filters and flexible replacement options.

SPECTRUM

The new ‘Surgical’ mode allows ‘copy/paste’ of either a whole region or the background ‘ambience’ of that region, as well as the application any processes to the selection – with full undo and redo functionality.

The wealth of new functions also in cludes the integration of hardware effect equipment within the mastering process, allowing engineers to combine the next-generation editing facilities in WaveLab 6 with the unmistakeable sound of their favourite analogue gear.

The enhanced master section now features SmartBypass, a time-saving new facility for assessing how a plug-in alters sound textures by compensating for volume changes induced by the plug-in. Similarly new are a range of quality audio processors including a new sample rate converter and the advanced Dirac time stretching and pitch-shifting algorithm.

The powerful Audio Montage’s clip handling and editing capability has been further extended to include a range of new functions such as the new fade editing features which allow for even more flexible editing of fades.

WaveLab 6 also now features remote controller support via MIDI, so that many WaveLab features can now be used even more intuitively through a tactile control surface, further speeding up workflow.

New metering and monitoring tools including support for renowned mastering engineer Bob Katz’ K-System as well as the new loudness distribution window.

Price and Availability
WaveLab 6 is currently available at authorized Steinberg dealers for $699 MSRP.

More info:

www.steinberg.net

Technest Holdings Provides Advanced 3D Facial Biometrics Capabilities; Sophisticated Suite of 3D Facial Recognition Tools Provides for Increased Perfo

2006-01-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 2006--Technest Holdings, Inc., www.technestholdings.com (OTCBB:TCNH.OB), a defense and homeland security company transforming advanced laboratory technology into real-world products, announced today that it's wholly owned subsidiary Genex Technologies Inc. (www.genextech.com) is providing new advanced capabilities to the global market for facial biometrics products via its integrated FaceCam(TM) and SureMatch(TM) 3D suite of facial recognition tools. Genex is a supplier of advanced imaging, surveillance and security sensor technologies and has a patent portfolio of over 20 issued and pending US patents for 3D video and imaging technologies. By partnering with leading biometrics companies, Genex has created a suite of facial recognition tools that provides both an enhancement for existing biometrics users and market-leading performance for new deployments.

Presently the U.S. government is depending on big improvements in biometric technologies as part of its homeland security strategy. For example, biometrics is poised to play a key role in the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (USVISIT). The USVISIT program calls for the use of numerous technologies to better track foreigners entering and leaving the United States.

Facial biometrics offers the advantage of non-intrusive identification of humans at a distance, non-cooperatively. Unlike finger prints or iris scan technologies, facial recognition can be performed in environments where passive identification of potential terrorists or criminals is required. Much of today's facial recognition technology has difficulty in providing sufficiently adequate performance because of the fundamental limitations of 2D technology. Pose, lighting, and expression have historically prevented 2D facial recognition from working well. The potential answer lies in 3D technology. Genex has addressed these problems by drawing upon its extensive research into 3D imaging and 2D-to-3D facial structure conversion.

One of the most important factors in facial recognition is the enrolled picture. If the enrolled picture is inaccurate, the performance will be inaccurate. Today, 2D cameras are used to enroll faces into databases for mug-shot recognition. However, 2D photographs only provide a small portion of the wealth of information that is available on a human face. Genex's state-of-the-art 3D FaceCam(TM) revolutionizes the way we capture photographs. The 3D FaceCam(TM) uses three sensors to create precise, complete 3D face images. By capturing the very highly detailed geometric and texture information on a face, the 3D FaceCam(TM) overcomes a photo's traditional limitations of pose, lighting, and expression. Now instead of possessing one shot of a person in time, users can create infinite variations of a face with the advanced tools of the SureMatch 3D Suite(TM).

Simple and easy to use, the 3D FaceCam (TM)operates similarly to traditional cameras. Capture speed is less than half a second, enabling rapid processing of large numbers of people. 3D FaceCam(TM) is also highly accurate, providing details to better than 500 micron accuracy, with more than 4 MegaPixel 2D overlay, making 3D FaceCam(TM) ideal for facial recognition.

SureMatch(TM) 3D is a suite of facial recognition tools that provides more robust detection capabilities through 3D enhancement. At the core Genex utilizes a recognition engine based upon next-generation 3D-to-3D face matching. The suite also has tools that allow seamless integration with existing 2D systems and databases to improve 2D facial recognition.

Technest Holdings, Inc. (OTC BB:TCNH.OB) is a provider of: advanced remote sensor systems, chemical detectors, intelligent surveillance and advanced 3D imaging technology solutions to the defense and homeland security marketplaces. Technest Holdings had fiscal first quarter ended September 30, 2005 sales revenues of $19M and a funded backlog as of November 31, 2005 of $55.2M.

About Technest Holdings, Inc.

Technest Holdings, Inc. (OTC BB:TCNH.OB) is a provider of: advanced remote sensor systems, chemical detectors, intelligent surveillance and advanced 3D imaging technology solutions to the defense and homeland security marketplaces. Technest is committed to setting next-generation standards in defense and security through the provision of innovative emerging technologies and expert services. Technest's solutions support military, law enforcement and homeland security personnel. Through strategic development, Technest focuses on the creation of dual-use technology and products with applications in both the defense market and civilian homeland security and law enforcement fields.

SecurteX International, Inc. announces availability of the SecurteX Mobile Digital Video Recorders (MDVR).

2006-01-19T17:52:00.000-05:00

DAYTON, OHIO, (NAMC) - SecurteX International, Inc. announces availability of the SecurteX Mobile Digital Video Recorders (MDVR). SecurteX delivers the ultimate in economical, reliable, and compact mobile digital surveillance solutions for public transportation, police vehicles, school buses, taxi cabs, emergency vehicles, ambulances, ferries, commercial transport and delivery, plus many other mobile applications as well as custom covert surveillance uses.

SecurteX’s MDVR system is a valuable security and management tool because it continuously records surveillance video, audio, data, GPS location, and input alarms from multiple sources.

SecurteX MDVRs features an embedded Linux operating system for maximum stability, MPEG-4 compression, low power consumption, and wide temperature and voltage tolerance. It is rugged, sealed, lightweight, and has a low profile modular assembly with locking case. The initial Securtex MDVR release features four channels of synchronized high-resolution video and digital audio capable of recording/playback at 30 frames per second per camera.

The SecurteX MDVR features integrated, passive GPS to record location and speed of the vehicle. Remote GPS software supports real time tracking of GPS position (moving map) and provides for a variety of data analysis options of recorded video. Communication options include wireless (WI-FI) or cellular network options for real-time viewing of live and recorded video via Ethernet port.

The SecurteX MDVR offers effective driver management options including 3-axis inertia sensor with supporting software to analyze driver behavior and promote safe vehicle operation.

"Securtex’s MDVR is the most feature-rich and reliable mobile DVR system available," said Ted Humphrey, President of SecurteX International. "This solution provides the transportation industry with a more advanced product that visually records what is happening in and around a vehicle, documents where the vehicle went, calculates its speed, log events, and helps determine whether the driver was operating their vehicle safely. These advanced features are now available from Securtex at a more reasonable cost."

About SecurteX International, Inc.

SecurteX has been manufacturing and distributing digital surveillance systems for over 8 years. Corporate headquarters is located in Dayton, OH. Information on SecurteX products can be found on the company’s website, www.securtex.com.

Forensic science helps solve more Ohio cold cases

2006-01-18T13:07:00.000-05:00

Created: 1/18/2006 10:31:24 AM
Updated:1/18/2006 10:31:31 AM

CLEVELAND -- More and more cold cases in Cleveland, Ohio and the rest of the nation, are being solved, because of advances in forensic science.
The new DNA technology is working for Cleveland Police.

"B.C.I. contacted us over a period of time and we learned we had a total of eight rape cases in which it was the same suspect," Cleveland Detective Alan Strickler said.

Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Identification (B.C.I.) and investigation analyzed DNA evidence that helped lead to the arrest of a former lake county probation officer last spring.

Improvements in DNA testing now allow smaller samples to yield genetic profiles. Those samples can be electronically compared with samples from other states in a national database set up by the FBI in 1998, now better linked by computer networks.

"What we can do is a marriage of several law enforcement agencies together where they can get together their investigators as a brain trust to go ahead and compare these particular crimes," Michael Velten with B.C.I. said.

Also helping in Ohio is a new law that went into effect last summer, requiring all convicted felons to submit a sample of DNA. Ohio now has more than 127,000 offender DNA profiles on file.

That DNA database has aided investigators in 1,555 Ohio cases.

"It's the most revolutionary crimes fighting tool we've ever seen," Attorney general spokesman Bob Beasley, said.

DNA is not only helping to convict in old cases. This improved technology can also be used to exonerate suspects, such as the case of Clarence Elkins, wrongly convicted of rape and murder in 1998 and freed after 7 years in prison.

It's not just DNA, fingerprint technology has improved as well.

Prints are now digested into digital bits that can be sent into an automated fingerprint identification system.

© 2006

WKYC-TV

Visions of a security powerhouse

2006-01-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

By Dave Price
Staff writer

Viisage Technology Inc. will soon have a new home, a new boss and a new name — along with a lot more weight to throw around in homeland-security circles.

The Billerica-based company announced yesterday it will merge with a Minnesota rival, Identix Inc., quickly creating a combined company with more than $150 million in annual sales and the potential to soon dominate the burgeoning security-technology market. The $770 million, all-stock transaction is expected to close by the end of June, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Launched 10 years ago to develop digital-identification tools, Viisage more recently has been betting on a big surge in business as state and local governments ramp up their operations over the next three years to meet new standards mandated under the REAL ID act. The company already produces all of the passports issued by the U.S. Department of State and has deals in place with about one-quarter of the 50 states to process driver's licenses or other government documents.

But company officials also have expressed a strong desire to extend its reach with additional fingerprinting and other biometric technologies — an order Identix can quickly fill. Identix now produces a mobile identification system capable of transmitting forensic-quality fingerprints and photographs wirelessly to a central databank for on-the-spot identification of individuals. It reported about $55 million in overall revenues through the first nine months of 2005.

Viisage recorded about $51 million in sales during the same period.

Under terms of the new deal, Identix shareholders would gain 59 percent of the combined companies and current Viisage shareholders would own the remaining 41 percent. But Viisage would hold a two-seat majority on the 12-member board of directors, with its current chairman Robert LaPenta retaining that post in addition to his new duties as chief executive of the company.

As part of his increased role within the expanded company, LaPenta plans to soon move its headquarters closer to his home in Stamford, Conn. During a conference call discussing the merger yesterday, he also said the company likely will change its name once the deal is complete.

Billerica, however, will be home to a new operating division that will take the Viisage name and will continue to be managed by Viisage's current CEO Bernard Bailey. Identix CEO Joseph Atick will become vice chairman and chief strategic officer of the new company.

The deal is the third acquisition since August when Billerica-based Viisage agreed to a $100 million cash investment from LaPenta. During his tenure at L-3, LaPenta was an aggressive buyer, relying on acquisitions to build the defense contractor into an $8 billion-a-year conglomerate. He joined Viisage this summer promising to use the same strategy to position Viisage in the burgeoning market for homeland security products.

Already, Viisage has purchased two companies, spending about $70 million to acquire a Tennessee-based fingerprinting company and an Alabama-based manufacturer of testing equipment for state driver's license issuers.

"This is a space littered with hundreds of companies, with lots of technology, not a lot of management, frankly, and little money to go to the next level," said LaPenta, during a conference call discussing the deal. "My vision was to build a platform to put together an end-to-end solution to biometric identification. This combination goes a long way toward that."

LaPenta also said other acquisitions are possible.

The merger already has been approved by both companies' boards. Company officials also said once the transaction closes, they would explore ways to reduce the number of outstanding shares and boost its cash reserves, including possibly issuing convertible debt.

Smiths Detection-LiveWave Enhances Rhode Island Port Security with Advanced Wireless Communications Network; DHS-Funded Program Puts Innovative, Senso

2006-01-13T12:40:00.000-05:00

NEWPORT, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2006--

Smiths Detection-LiveWave, a leading developer of intelligent surveillance solutions for mission-critical security applications, announced it has been awarded a contract to engineer and deploy a prototype security solution for the Rhode Island Port Security Wireless Communications Network (RIPSWCN). As part of a one-year pilot program, the system will interconnect with land-based communications networks to allow government agencies and emergency personnel to share and distribute real-time data throughout Narragansett Bay.

A collaborative project of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (EMA), Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC), the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM), the Rhode Island Department of Administration (DOA), the RIPSWCN partnership was created as a demonstration project funded by an $856,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through its Information Technology and Evaluation Program (ITEP).

After soliciting bids from contractors across the country, RIPSWCN selected Smiths Detection-LiveWave to lead the network construction. The network is scheduled to be operational in March 2006.

"Under Smiths Detection-LiveWave's leadership, the Rhode Island Port Security Wireless Communications Network will demonstrate new port security technologies with the potential for nationwide application," says John Riendeau, Defense Industry Manager at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. "This Network's unique ability to develop new models for addressing emergency response and contingency planning, will become a national model by which other port security communication approaches are measured."

The project will consist of a wireless broadband network to distribute text, voice, data and video to first responders and local law enforcement in real-time. Users will be able to communicate securely via Internet Protocol (IP) on standard PCs, laptops and handheld devices.

Additionally, the network will consist of both existing and new high-resolution robotic camera systems, wireless networking systems and equipment and a variety of sensors including thermal and radar for vessel identification and tracking.

"Smiths Detection-LiveWave's next-generation technology extends interoperability to agencies needing to share critical information in real-time, as it helps to expand the communications infrastructure and increases public safety," said Peter Mottur, President of Smiths Detection-LiveWave. "By taking a proactive role in strengthening Narragansett Bay's port security, the DHS and State of Rhode Island recognize the Bay is a vital resource to the area's economy and environment. Deploying our network solution also provides a model of advanced communications infrastructure to other ports around the country."

To fully integrate and deploy the advanced network solution, Smiths Detection-LiveWave is partnering with Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems; Business Innovation Factory (BIF) of Providence, RI; and Verizon Wireless. The system will be implemented as part of the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) initiative, a project of the Business Innovation Factory to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with border-to-border broadband wireless capability.

A great strength of Rhode Island's bid to win federal funding for this project was the way in which Rhode Island's size and accessible leadership enabled the interagency cooperation necessary to develop and prototype a system of this kind.

About Smiths Detection-LiveWave

Smiths Detection-LiveWave is a leading provider of intelligent digital video surveillance solutions for mission-critical applications. Smiths Detection-LiveWave develops advanced intrusion detection software and provides engineering and integration services for enterprise-level physical security applications.

Smiths Detection-LiveWave products and services are available from the General Services Administration's (GSA) Federal Supply Service under Schedule 70: General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software and Services. GSA Contract # GS-35F-0493N.

Smiths Detection-LiveWave was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of Smiths Detection, which is headquartered in Pine Brook, New Jersey. Smiths Detection is one of four operating divisions of Smiths Group plc. Smiths Detection offers technologically advanced security solutions to detect and identify explosives, chemical and biological agents, weapons and contraband. Employing trace detection technology together with Smiths Heimann X-ray imaging, Smiths Detection provides screening solutions for customers in civil and military markets worldwide. For more information visit: www.smithsdetection.com

Defense lab accredited in computer forensics

2006-01-12T17:57:00.000-05:00

By Patience Wait
GCN Staff

CLEARWATER, Fla.—After years of work, the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory—part of the DOD Cyber Crime Center (DC3)—has been accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.

Ralph Keaton, executive director of ASCLD/LAB, presented the certificate of accreditation to representatives of DCFL Jan. 10 during the first day of the DOD Cyber Crime Conference.

The effort to become accredited began in late 1998, but “the focused campaign probably took 18 months or so,” said Steven Shirley, executive director of DC3. The DCFL becomes the 10th and, with 88 employees, the largest accredited digital crime lab in the world, he said.

The DCFL provides digital evidence processing, analysis and diagnostics for any Defense Department investigation that requires computer forensic support to detect, enhance or recover digital media, including audio and video. The lab’s several sections provide services for criminal, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and fraud investigations of Defense criminal investigative organizations and DOD counterintelligence activities, as well as safety investigations, Inspector General-directed inquiries and commander inquiries.

County plans to extend forensic investigations

2006-01-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

Grants to help pay for more training
By Edward Carpenter
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:37 PM PST

SAN MATEO — Car thieves and burglars beware; forensic scientists at the county-run crime laboratory could soon be on the case.

County officials plan to train local police this year in securing crime scenes for forensic investigation and collecting evidence to be used by scientists to glean latent fingerprints or DNA that can be run through the state’s databases.

Using three federal grants to better train officers and buy automated equipment, the San Mateo County Forensic Laboratory hopes to expand its investigations capabilities beyond violent crimes into property crimes, officials said.

“The sheriff has decided we would like to move this out into the municipal agencies,” Forensic Lab Director Jim Granucci said. “The big advantage for us will be to automate the lab to check DNA against the growing Prop. 69 database.”

Approved by voters in November 2004, Proposition 69 requires the collection of DNA from convicted felons, as well as from adults and juveniles arrested for or charged with certain violent crimes. In 2010, the program will be expanded to include all adults arrested for or charged with any felony. The samples are submitted to a state DNA database that currently contains about 350,000 individuals, officials said.

Collecting evidence from stolen cars or home burglaries could tie multiple crimes to one perpetrator and be used to match criminals already captured to unsolved cases, Granucci said. It is estimated that a top burglar commits more than 232 burglaries a year, according to a report posted on the National Criminal Justice Reference Service’s Web site, which operates under the U.S. Department of Justice. “When [police] analyze DNA from a burglary, they get evidence that often solves several other cases as well,” according to the report.

The lab will use three federal grants worth about $1 million that were awarded this year and last to purchase new equipment that will be able to cut the time needed to process a DNA sample by half, from about four to two hours, said Alice Neumann, DNA Technical Leader for the lab.

Because of shows like “CSI,” more jurors want to see this type of evidence before they convict someone, Granucci said. “The problem is that we can’t do it in 40 minutes and four commercials [like on television].”

He hopes the faster forensic technology will help investigators further reduce property crimes in the county, which dropped from about 9,100 in 2000 to 7,600 in 2003, records show.

“I really see this as the next step for law enforcement,” Granucci said.

Some parks may get surveillance cameras to combat lewd acts; privacy issues raised

2006-01-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

By CHRIS JONES
Staff Writer

Putting surveillance cameras in various city parks to combat people committing lewd acts is being considered by the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation, Metro officials said yesterday.

Councilman Michael Craddock asked the board on Tuesday to place cameras in Cedar Hill, Hamilton Creek and Two Rivers parks, where several people have been arrested for indecent exposure and lewd conduct.

The recommendation came from a resolution sponsored by Craddock that the Metro Council unanimously passed in December, he said.

"The resolution that Metro Council passed grew out of a desire to see the city do something proactive about protecting our parks from individuals who seek to go to the parks and perform illegal sex acts," Craddock said. "I was real pleased with the response."

An official of the Tennessee branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said the cameras could present some red flags considering the potential cost to the city and privacy issues, especially if the proposed cameras have audio capabilities.

Metro police stopped plans last spring for an audio monitoring system that would have allowed officers to eavesdrop at random on conversations in public places, because of public opposition.

"From our perspective, I'm not sure this is the best public policy route for us to take," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the Tennessee ACLU. "We all want our streets, parks and neighborhoods safe. I think we might be creating more of a false sense of security than real security, because you're not going to have cameras viewing every single area of a park."

Park board officials said they were going to study the request over the next few months to see what the potential cost could be for the city and the type of technology to use. "There are a number of issues that have to be looked into," said Jackie Jones, spokeswoman for Metro Parks and Recreation.

Metro police arrested nearly 100 people in an undercover park sting last year and in 2004 and charged them with lewd conduct.

The city has spent thousands of dollars to increase park security and there are still recurring problems, Craddock said.

"I witnessed a sting for a number of hours one day back in the summer and witnessed firsthand how many people were arrested and how prevalent the problem was," Craddock said. "The problem just keeps returning." •

CSI class brings fun, science to YMCA

2006-01-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

By Rachel Gensler

Yellow warning tape stamped with the words “Crime Scene Investigation” hangs from two walls in the corner of a room at the Marietta Family YMCA. A table next to it is cluttered with evidence and the tools to solve the crime; soon, area students will be on the case.

Under the direction of Don Carpenetti, a Marietta College chemistry professor, the YMCA is sponsoring a Crime Scene Investigation course for children in the third through seventh grades.

The eight-week course is designed for children interested in learning about science with a hands-on approach. The children will be exposed to fingerprint analysis, fiber analysis and even a simulated blood analysis.

“The idea is to trick kids into learning science,” said Carpenetti, who is developing a forensic chemistry class for the college. “Hopefully, they will have a lot of fun along the way.”

Carpenetti led a class at the college last semester for children, teaching science through playing with toys, and he found that the class was enjoyable and the students left with a positive outlook about science.

What he hopes to add to this class, however, is a focus on the scientific method, giving the children a chance to form a hypothesis and go through the steps to test whether they can prove their hypothesis.

By the third week of the class, Carpenetti will set up a fake crime scene containing all the evidence needed to solve the case and allow the students to collect the evidence and analyze it. They will have to figure out the blood type of the perpetrator and the clothing type or type of animal hair on the scene.

After reviewing the available materials and a brief discussion with Carpenetti during an organizational and planning meeting, Putnam Elementary third-grader Mattie Miller, 8, became very excited about the class.

Miller, who has used a microscope before during science class at school, is familiar with experiments and interested in learning more about science.

“I like a lot of things about science,” Miller said. Miller was able to preview the upcoming class and see the equipment that will be used Thursday. “It was really cool looking in (the microscope) and seeing really close up.”

Miller’s mother, Michelle, works at the YMCA and thinks the class will be beneficial for her daughter’s education.

“The schools can only do so much with hands-on experience, and kids love that,” she said. “I think this is going to be wonderful.”

With about $375 worth of equipment, all sponsored by Farrar Scientific Inc. in Reno, participating students will be able to use a microscope for analysis, take fingerprints and learn to recognize the ink from pens as well as different types of lipstick.

The course will meet Saturdays at 9 a.m, at the YMCA. The first class will be Jan. 28.

The cost of the course is $65 for YMCA members, and $80 for non-members.

Through Washington County Job and Family Services, money is available for scholarships for children whose families meet certain income guidelines. Scholarship recipients must be Washington County residents, but anyone within the age limit can register for the class.

To apply for a scholarship and/or to register for the class, visit the YMCA on Seventh Street in Marietta.

Roger Kalter, the YMCA program director, is looking for about 10 to 12 children to start the program, but if there is an excess in interest, including children who might not fall in the age limit, expansion and continuation will be considered.

Authorities bulking up to fight ID fraud

2005-12-20T12:11:00.000-05:00

Carla Bova

As identity theft continues to grow, prevention and investigation have become a priority for authorities.
California has addressed high technology and identity theft crimes by creating five regional task forces that cover the state.

The Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force was created in 2000 to investigate high-tech crimes. It covers 13 counties from Marin to the Oregon border.

The Marin County District Attorney's Office is the administrative center, with District Attorney Ed Berberian serving as task force program manager and responsible for administering annual grants and setting policy.

Daily operations are based in Napa with a staff of specially trained
law enforcement personnel from local, state and federal agencies, as well as attorneys who advise and prosecute cases.

The high-tech unit does forensic analysis of computers to retrieve evidence and investigates crimes where computers are used, such as child pornography, homicide, piracy of software and unlawful access of corporate computer networks.

In 2002, officials recognized the need for a separate unit within the task force to specialize in identity theft.

In addition to investigating cases, the task force conducts regular sweeps targeting known identity theft offenders and places heavy emphasis on education. It offers law enforcement training workshops almost monthly and provides public outreach to seniors, rotary clubs and other organizations to increase awareness.

Vallejo police Lt. Rick Nichelman, task force operations manager, said that while the task force pools resources of several police departments and works collaboratively with the secret service and postal investigators, it is "pretty overwhelming" for the small identity theft unit - made up of four full-time personnel and three part-timers - to work the cases of 13 counties.

Cases tend to be complex and labor-intensive. They often involve rings of suspects who have used the stolen information of several victims across multiple jurisdictions, spending as they go.

"They are doing this up and down the I-80 corridor and the 101 corridor, in many jurisdictions, because if it works once, it is going to work again, and a mobile suspect is hard to track," said Vallejo police Sgt. Ken Weaver, supervisor of the task force's identity theft unit. "You have each individual agency taking one report. They need to get together and recognize a crime spree occurring here. That is when our task force gets involved."

To make matters worse, criminals have a head start evading authorities because it can take a month or even years before people discover they have been a victim of identity theft.

The task force accepts cases with a minimum loss of $10,000. Nichelman said many victims fall below that threshold and cannot be considered a priority.

"If we had more resources, more people, we could be more proactive," Nichelman said. "We would not have to wait to receive cases, we could go out and target people."

Berberian said he is working to increase funding to combat identity theft. The task force's identity theft unit gets a state grant of about $500,000 each year. The high-tech unit gets $2.5 million to $3 million each year.

"From the volume of cases there is pressure, a lot of pressure, on all law enforcement agencies in the state to meet the challenges of this problem," Berberian said.

"The governor, the legislature - both at the state and federal level - are putting the focus on it, but what they have to back it up with and what has not happened up to this point is the money to actually deal with this problem," he said. "There are literally stacks of cases that could be worked if we had the personnel to do it."