Frittmann Forensics

Blending Robert Frittmann's computer and security careers into computer forensic investigation.

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  • RSS Intellisec

    • Duel of the Designers: New Industrial Espionage War Zone 8 November 2009
      Economic and commercial espionage has a much lower profile than it deserves – dangerously low. It’s an area where many companies remain unaware of their vulnerability, believing that unless they’ve invented something like a cure for the common cold, no one is likely to be interested in what they’re doing. That’s definitely not the case, [...]
      admin
    • The Cyberspace Explosion: Five Tips for Survival 4 November 2009
      The new digital world of easy communications and social networking is so surprisingly open that many no longer see the problem as one of Big Brother watching us. It’s more a matter of us being obsessed with watching each other. And sharing, too. As The New York Times put it in September, “Your parents probably [...]
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    • McKinsey Partner’s Arrest Spotlights White-Collar Crime 2 November 2009
      The elite US consulting firm of McKinsey & Company, long known for its prudence and caution, must have been low on anybody’s suspect list of those likely to be involved in financial crime. Even the suspect himself was shocked when federal officers arrived at his California home recently to arrest him on charges of conspiracy [...]
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    • McScam: Fast Food Customers Fleeced 30 October 2009
      Australia’s Daily Telegraph reported on October 21 that McDonald’s – the largest fast food chain in the country – will overhaul security on its EFTPOS machines after customers were stripped of $A4 million. Criminals had snatched the devices at McDonald’s outlets across the Western Australian state capital of Perth, a city of more than one [...]
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    • FBI Operation Catches Online Bank Fraudsters 27 October 2009
      In what the FBI is calling Operation Phish Phry, it has arrested 53 people on charges of conducting a vast financial fraud based on phishing. Numerous Internet users have been tricked into revealing vital information, according to an 86-page indictment filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles. The New York Times reported on [...]
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    • Saab, US Company Accused of Bribery in South Korea 25 October 2009
      The Korea Times in Seoul reported on October 6 that an investigation into bribery cases involving foreign defence firms is widening as more evidence of illegal lobbying activities emerges. The move comes as the country’s authorities conduct a probe into the Swedish defence and aerospace firm, Saab, whose Seoul office has been raided on suspicion [...]
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    • ‘Canadian Madoff’ sentenced to jail for 200 fraud charges 21 October 2009
      This week in a Montreal Court saw former Norbourg CEO Vincent Lacroix sentenced to 13 years in jail after he recently plead guilty to nearly 200 fraud charges in relation to the financial collapse of the Norbourg Group. The charges included multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit forgery, fabricating documents and [...]
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    • Japanese Banks Call Gangs to Account 15 October 2009
      If your company is about to go into business in Japan it will pay to know where gangs – referred to as yakuza – fit into the scene. In more ways than one, Japan has the most overt, upfront gangs in the world. They hold annual general meetings and are sometimes seen on TV. But [...]
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    • If Fake Anti-Virus Software Doesn’t Get You, Something Else Will. 11 October 2009
      A Russian security researcher who heads Canada’s virus lab, Sophos, has recently shown how most spam on email, search engines and social networking sites originates with ‘affiliate networks’. These networks pay generous commissions to geeks who refer unsuspecting web users to their illegal products. Not only are they selling fake anti-virus software but also […]
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    • Cyber scams and cheats target job seekers: Six tips to protect yourself 7 October 2009
      As more and more job seekers turn to the internet looking for positions, scammers are finding ways to dupe them of their money. Cyber fraud, money laundering and scams are confronting online job seekers. Authorities have reported a large rise in online scams targeting those looking for a new job or part time position. Investigators [...]
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  • RSS Discerning e-Discovery

    • Bringing Order to Chaos: “Be quick but don’t hurry” during project crisis 8 October 2009
      John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach, had many famous quotes as part of his pyramid of success.  One of my favorites is “Be quick but don’t hurry.”  The quote means (1) do the right things, (2) learn to do them quickly, but (3) never be out of control.  This quote also has application for project managers facing a crisis. As project managers, we all […]
      Tom Mighell
    • “That Proclamation and a Dollar Will Get You a Cup of Coffee Down Here in the Valley, Son” 10 September 2009
      by Dennis Kiker - Director, Professional Services, Fios, Inc. I’ve noticed a theme in many of my conversations with outside counsel recently when the topic of the Sedona Cooperation Proclamation comes up.  First there is a tightening around the mouth and the eyes narrow just a bit.  It is not dissimilar to the look my daughters would give me when I asked whe […]
      Tom Mighell
    • Building an e-Discovery Team - Part 3 3 September 2009
      by Nancy Patton, Professional Services, Fios, Inc. In the first two posts in this series, I’ve emphasized that Legal and IT are the core building blocks of any Discovery Response Team. Representatives of other departments can be added to the team as required; depending on the organization’s structure, individuals from records management and compliance […]
      Tom Mighell
    • Building a Discovery Reponse Team - Part 2 27 August 2009
      by Nancy Patton, Professional Services, Fios, Inc. In my first post in this series last week, I discussed why a Discovery Response Team is a critical component to an effective e-discovery response.  This week, let’s talk about the steps you must consider in order to assure the greatest success in building your Discovery Response Team: Establish a team […]
      Tom Mighell
    • Improving Review Efficiencies 26 August 2009
      by Richard Wersinger, Technical Trainer, Fios, Inc. In their August 2009 Law Technology News article, Robbery?: Are we cheating clients if we don’t purge duplicates? (Law Technology News, August 2009, Vol 16 No. 8, ) authors Anne Kershaw and Joseph Howie suggest it is possible to gain review efficiencies by deduping across multiple custodians.  They wrote: W […]
      Tom Mighell

  • RSS SANS Forensics

    • How to Disrupt a Botnet 8 November 2009
      The following note is inspired by the steps the folks at FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab took to disable the Mega-d/Ozdok bot network. People often wonder what it takes to shut down a botnet. Here are the key steps, which apply to “traditional” botnets, which don’t rely heavily on peer-to-peer protocols for their command and control [...]
      Lenny Zeltser
    • 3 Lists for Investigating Malware Incidents 7 November 2009
      When investigating an incident that involves malicious software, it helps to understand the context of the infection before starting to reverse the malware specimen. Some of the ways to accomplish this involves: Examining the websites that may be associated with the incident, often because they are suspected in hosting exploits that acted as the infection ve […]
      Lenny Zeltser
    • An Analysis of SpyKing 3 November 2009
      In this post, I am going to touch on several methods of analysis used in discovering how a potentially malicious program functions. In this case, I have selected a covert surveillance program called SpyKing. The marketing hype concerning this program states: “SpyKing Vista Spy secrectly logs all keystrokes, web sites, emails, chats & IMs: MSN Messenger, […]
      craigswright

  • RSS Where is my data?

    • DNA Rention Limits – More of the Same 11 November 2009
      DNA - 6 years retention
      585
    • PunterNet, PR, and Bad Driving 5 October 2009
      Harriet Harman is not having a good time. She is accused of failing to stop at road traffic accident, she was embroiled in the  expenses claims fiasco, and she is the deputy leader of a party that just got dropped by the biggest selling paper in the UK. But, this is not why she is [...]
      585
    • Electronic Discovery: MS and Autonomy 3 October 2009
      If the rummors are true, this would be big news in the ED world, Full Article If Microsoft, as rumored, were to buy Autonomy, there would be a seismic ripple felt through eDiscovery-related markets.  First, Microsoft would own two of the leading search products in the market (Autonomy and FAST).  Second, Microsoft would have applications to provide [...]
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  • RSS Data Triage

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  • RSS Wired: Threat Level

    • Convicted Murderer Sues Wikipedia, Demands Removal of His Name 11 November 2009
      Wikipedia is under a censorship attack by a convicted murderer who is invoking Germany’s privacy laws in a bid to remove references to his killing of a Bavarian actor in 1990. Lawyers for Wolfgang Werle, of Erding, Germany, sent a cease-and-desist letter (.pdf) demanding removal of Werle’s name from the Wikipedia entry on actor Walter Sedlmayr. [ […]
      David Kravets
    • Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spying Suit 10 November 2009
      The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, the government has [...]
      Kim Zetter
    • Feds Charge $522K for FOIA Request 10 November 2009
      The Treasury Department wants more than $500,000 to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, a fee an attorney on the case suggested Tuesday might be one of the largest bills of its kind. “I have not seen one that has been larger,” said Noah Wood, a Missouri attorney suing the government to comply with [...]
      David Kravets
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Preparation

Posted by Robert Frittmann on 25 May 2009

Sitting back and relaxing on my paid leave for four weeks is not in my plan at all. Even though semester two doesn’t begin until June, I have a lot of preparation to do. Today I made an appointment with the course counselor at AUT, as I need to ensure that the papers that I’m intending to do at Auckland University will be suitable for entrance to the Master of Forensic IT (MFIT) postgraduate course once I graduate. I’d hate to spend three years studying at Auckland Uni just to find that my academic transcript is not going to help me secure a place on the MFIT programme at AUT.

I have also been working on my LinkedIn profile today, and have gained my first network contact. Aaron Bhashkar of Soft Solutions has added me. He was a software vendor back when I started in the computer industry. I hope to get a lot more contacts in my LinkedIn network and maybe even get some recommendations. I have added many of my previous positions from both my time in the computer industry and in the security industry, so hopefully I’ll gain some recommendations to boost my reputation on LinkedIn.

Also today I’ve been posting the question, about whether I need to study Law as part of my undergraduate programme, on some security and forensics forums. I have posted on Forensic Focus, security-forums, and Computer Forensics World. I hope to get some good advice about my study options before I go to the course counselor on Friday.

I try to ensure that I am as prepared as possible for my studies, and I have spent some time today building a collection of book titles related to computer forensics, using Google Book Search. Later I will also create a list of articles using Google Scholar. By the time I begin my studies I will have a good collection of reference material that I can call on. I will be reformatting my 2Gb thumb drive and loading it up with my PersonalBrain data and my KeePass password database, two essentials that I can use both in Windows and Linux. I use The Brain to keep track of all my information, linking course information, reference material, class timetables, and favorite websites all in a single graphical “mind map” environment. I use KeePass as a secure repository for all my passwords. There is just so much to prepare, and I only have four weeks to do it.

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This entry was posted on 25 May 2009 at 17:05 and is filed under 05. Study Tools. Tagged: , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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