PSU Magazine Fall 2003

TECH NO YOUTH SLEUTH -~ Anyone who's bought a computer or software one day only to find it out– dated the next knows first-hand that with digital technology, one thing is constant-the upgrade. And every time computers or soft– ware become more sophisticated, the software programs used to catch com– puter criminals become outdated. Kyle Keith wouldn't have it any other way. Keith , a 19-year-old computer science major at Portland State, already has worked on 10 sophisti– cated and complex digital forensics software programs destined for govern– ment agencies and law enforcement– including one tool being used in the war against terrorism. lt all started back when Keith's family bought its first computer, one of the primitive versions sold a mere ] 0 years ago that came with its own sim– plified programming guide. "l looked at the examples in the manual," says Keith , "and l just started programming. " He was 9. all the files on a computer that contain child pornography and demonstrate in a court of law that the criminal put them there 7 One recent case illustrating the problem involved an employee fired for damaging the company's computer systems. In time, the employee was able to prove that a hacker had accessed the employee's computer from outside the company and launched his attack-making the assault seem to be the employee's work. P::J omputer security is nothing ~ new- computers have always been vulnerable to hacking and other illegal acts. But computer forensics– with its "legally admissible" require– ment-is so new that recognized standards are just being developed . Once again , universities are at the fo re. PSU has offered computer and network security courses along with classes in cryptology for more than five years. But in the past year, Portland State has added classes in forensics. 10 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2003 Like a duckling in water, Keith was in his element. By the sixth grade, while the other kids were playing com– puter games, he was dreaming of building Web pages. "My first year of high school ," he says, "l finished the first four years o[ programming classes . . . My teacher got me a job at the school district mak– ing Web pages-grunt work, basi– cally. When the position for NTI came up, he told me about that, and 1 was hired to do software licensing, which is basically a paperwork job." New Technologies, Inc. (NTI), develops software for digital foren– sics-the discipline of finding evidence of digital crimes using methods that will stand up in court. The Gresham company was founded in 1996 by Mike Anderson , who spent 25 years as a special agent and computer specialist with the criminal investiga– tion division of the Internal Rev– enue Service . "We've always had a standing agree– ment with the local high school that if And in March , PSU became one of about 50 universities to be recognized as a Center of Academic Excellence in In formation Assurance Education by the National Security Agency. r:, SU is an ideal location for culti– LIII vating cyber sleuths. The Port– land metro area is especially fertile ground for high tech crimes, eve ry– thing from espionage of high-tech corporate secrets to low-tech "chip rips"-driving away from a computer chip manufacturer'.s loading dock in a hijacked semi full of computer chips. "The major presence of Intel here," says retired FBl agent George Heuston , "puts a big bull's-eye on the Silicon Forest. " Take the case of the rovin g software engineer. Over the course of three years, the guy had worked at 50 major high tech companies around the coun– try-including Intel, Tektronix, and Lockheed. "He had ," says Heuston , "a magnificent resume." they have a sharp kid in computers, we'll try to hire them as interns," says Anderson. "I kind of mentor them a little bit. But basically they sweep the floors and do the clerical work. " When he got the chance, Keith demonstrated that he could do much more than that. Given the assignment to finalize the development of software used in uncovering child pornography, Keith spent the night writing code and came back the next day with a final ver– sion. When his internship was finished and he graduated from Gresham's Sam Barlow High School in 2002, he was hired by NTI full time. And he started classes that fall at PSU. When Anderson needed some– one to work on his flagship software, FNames, Keith's was the first name to come to mind. FNames is sophisticated software that can identify English, Euro– pean or Arabic names in any docu– ment on a computer. That helps investigators identify all the individuals in a network. Anderson developed So impressive that one Portland– area company was thri.lled to bring him onboard . Until, that is, the com– pany discovered the golden boy had transferred their source code to another location . Source code is the base computer instructions for a particular computer appli cation. Source code for a complex and large-scale application-say run– ning the payroll for a company with thousands of employees- can cost mil– lions. So long as you're the only one who knows the source code, you have a pretty pro fitable enterprise. But if everyone knows your source code, you've lost everything. "It was," says Heuston, "a real 'hair– on-fire' case." He started tracking the suspect. "The guy had a house in the Seattle area," Heuston says, "but he would live either in his van or onsite at the fa cility that had hired him. He'd work a cou– ple weeks and then start taking data." The guy, says Heuston , grabbed anything that was grabbable-from