High-Tech Crime-Fight Lab Unveiled

[mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/biztech/articles/25crime-lab.html

September 25, 1999
High-Tech Crime-Fight Lab Unveiled
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LINTHICUM, Md. -- The Defense Department showed off its latest arsenal of
high-tech crime-fighting tools Friday, a $15 million computer lab where it
can trace hackers across the Internet, unscramble hidden files and rebuild
smashed floppy disks that were cut in pieces.

Investigators will use the new Defense Computer Forensics Lab, located in
a nondescript brick building south of Baltimore, to unravel electronic
evidence in cases of espionage, murder and other crimes involving
America's military.

Using powerful computers and special software, these 80 digital detectives
can trace a hacker across the Internet to his keyboard, recover files
thought to be safely deleted and quickly search tens of thousands of
documents for an important phrase.

Cyberspace is ``a new kind of wild, lawless sort of frontier,'' said
Christopher Mellon, a deputy assistant Defense secretary. ``We have
important national interests, and we have to be able to function.''

Organizers envision sharing equipment and secret techniques they develop
to help FBI, state and local authorities prosecute criminals who use
computers, such as drug-dealers who track profits and customers with
accounting software.

The FBI even established its own minilab upstairs in the building, though
most of its digital forensics work will continue to be performed in
downtown Washington at its headquarters.

``Virtually every white-collar crime case today brings at least one
computer, if not a whole network of computers,'' FBI Assistant Director
Donald Kerr said. ``We need people who are well prepared.''

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