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"One officer was employed simply keeping her finger on the laptop's trackpad to make sure it didn't go to sleep. Later, police cyber-specialists would spend man

by h4x3r 12y ago

"One officer was employed simply keeping her finger on the laptop's trackpad to make sure it didn't go to sleep. Later, police cyber-specialists would spend many hours examining exactly what was on the two computers." ... cyber-specialists that can't even disable sleep mode ...

cssmoo 12y ago
If it was the met, this wouldn't surprise me. Unrelated anecdote but a company I worked for was burgled a few years ago but the three desktop PCs were recovered by them. When asked if we wanted the kit back or disposed of (insurance had covered it already) we asked for the systems back so we could dispose of the disks ourselves. What turned up? Three monitors. The PC were "disposed of by accident because they didn't know what they were". Hmmm.
mobiuscog 12y ago
I read it as meaning the officer (non-cyber-specialist) kept it awake until the cyber-specialists arrived... I wouldn't expect a raid party to know much about technology, other than just keep it 'on'.
DanBC 12y ago
Or police who know enough to keep machines powered on and not sleeping until the specialists get there. There are plenty of cases where machines have been powered down and evidence has been lost, so this is probably an improvement.
- hga 12y ago
  Exactly. I first bare metaled a machine in 1981 (BSD 2.x onto a PDP-11/44), so I'm not exactly a noob. I too would keep my finger on the trackpad while reading a book or whatever to keep it alive until the computer forensics specialists arrived. What if that change was booby-trapped?
jquast 12y ago
During the DrinkOrDie busts of 2001, agents used the computers of those busted to impersonate them to chat with and further identify other members for a 2nd wave of busts.
atlbeer 12y ago
How have "cyber-specialists" not heard of a 'Mouse Jiggler'? http://www.amazon.com/Wiebetech-Mouse-Jiggler-Slow-Version/dp/B000O3S0PK http://www.amazon.com/Wiebetech-Mouse-Jiggler-Slow-Version/d...
gwern 12y ago
Same thing happened in the Ulbricht case - one of the FBI agents was assigned to keep jiggling it after the initial photographs were taken but before the forensics proper started. You'd think that computer crime officers would've developed some better solution than that by now.

by h4x3r 12y ago

cssmoo 12y ago

If it was the met, this wouldn't surprise me. Unrelated anecdote but a company I worked for was burgled a few years ago but the three desktop PCs were recovered by them. When asked if we wanted the kit back or disposed of (insurance had covered it already) we asked for the systems back so we could dispose of the disks ourselves. What turned up? Three monitors. The PC were "disposed of by accident because they didn't know what they were". Hmmm.

mobiuscog 12y ago

I read it as meaning the officer (non-cyber-specialist) kept it awake until the cyber-specialists arrived... I wouldn't expect a raid party to know much about technology, other than just keep it 'on'.

DanBC 12y ago

Or police who know enough to keep machines powered on and not sleeping until the specialists get there. There are plenty of cases where machines have been powered down and evidence has been lost, so this is probably an improvement.

hga 12y ago
Exactly. I first bare metaled a machine in 1981 (BSD 2.x onto a PDP-11/44), so I'm not exactly a noob. I too would keep my finger on the trackpad while reading a book or whatever to keep it alive until the computer forensics specialists arrived. What if that change was booby-trapped?

jquast 12y ago

During the DrinkOrDie busts of 2001, agents used the computers of those busted to impersonate them to chat with and further identify other members for a 2nd wave of busts.

atlbeer 12y ago

How have "cyber-specialists" not heard of a 'Mouse Jiggler'? http://www.amazon.com/Wiebetech-Mouse-Jiggler-Slow-Version/dp/B000O3S0PK http://www.amazon.com/Wiebetech-Mouse-Jiggler-Slow-Version/d...

gwern 12y ago

Same thing happened in the Ulbricht case - one of the FBI agents was assigned to keep jiggling it after the initial photographs were taken but before the forensics proper started. You'd think that computer crime officers would've developed some better solution than that by now.