PSU Magazine Fall 2003

f'r.T1 hile monitoring the Intel l!.l!J supercomputer that supplies software to the U.S. government, Mark Morrissey saw something chilling. Only computer applications he had installed were authorized. But at noon on October 28, 1993, Morrissey noticed that one of the computers was running an unauthorized program called "Crack." "Crack was a well known password cracking program," says Morrissey, now an instructor in Portland States Computer Science Department. If someone gained access to the pass– words, Intel's supercomputer would be an open toy box to the intruder. And since Intel also supplied systems for calculating the U.S. Strategic Petro– leum Reserve, if someone had already breached the system's security, Morris– sey realized, the consequences would be severe. Morrissey reached for the phone. He was about to enter the world of digital forensics. Digital crimes are the new frontier for cops and criminals. As society has computerized, so have the bad guys-using PCs for everything from online identify theft and computer hacking to drug dealing and larceny. Some observers estimate that comput– ers are used in 75 percent of all crimes. "Computers are no longer for just the technically elite," says Warren Har– rison, professor of computer science. "Everyone with a computer who com– mits a crime has probably used a com– puter in that crime ... Many criminals are meticulous in their recordkeeping." Like one criminal, an accountant, who was so thorough, says Harrison, that he had kept an electronic record of every stolen item he sold. Once the electronic files were found, the case was a snap. But to stand up in court, the steps used to find evidence of digital crimes must meet certain legal standards-a discipline called forensics. Simply put, forensics-whether tra– ditional or digital-means investigating a crime (or possible crime) in such a way that the results are legally admissi– ble. In traditional, Sherlock Holmes– style forensics , physical items found at a crime scene-a footprint , a bullet shell-are analyzed for information (whose foot, what gun). r:I orensics took a mega-leap for– LIi ward during the 1920s when advances in medicine, chemistry, and microscopy gave police more tools for their investigations. And since univer– sities were where most of the medical, chemical, and microscopy experts worked, police sought the assistance of university professors to help them examine potential evidence. Digital forensics takes this discipline another leap ahead into the world of electrons. There's just one problem. A computer, more so than other evidence, can be tampered with– deliberately or not. Sometimes opening a file can change it. Even simply turn– ing on a computer can potentially alter the evidence. So how do you find , say, FALL 2003 PSU MAGAZINE 9