All posts tagged: forensics

Drug residue can be detected in fingerprints left at crime scenes

Drug residue can be detected in fingerprints left at crime scenes

Published by skeptic

A researcher uses a chemical to extract drug residue from fingerprints Loughborough University Forensic scientists have developed a new technique that can detect drug and explosive residue on fingerprint samples from crime scenes. “That information, the presence of drug particles, is an almost untapped resource,” says James Reynolds at Loughborough University in the UK. That is because investigators use thin gelatine layers, called gel lifters, to lift fingerprints. These introduce chemicals to samples, making it difficult to identify trace amounts of drugs or explosives on them. … Source link

The Science of Crypto Forensics Survives a Court Battle—for Now

The Science of Crypto Forensics Survives a Court Battle—for Now

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On March 12, Russian-Swedish national Roman Sterlingov was found guilty of money laundering conspiracy and other violations by a federal jury in Washington, DC, for having operated Bitcoin Fog, a service criminals used to launder what authorities claim was hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. The conviction was heralded by the US Department of Justice as a victory over crypto-enabled criminality, but Sterlingov’s lawyers maintain the case against him was flawed and plan to appeal. They allege that the nascent science used to collect evidence against him is not fit for the purpose. The DOJ investigation used blockchain forensics, a technique whereby investigators scrutinize the public trail of crypto transactions to map the flow of funds. In a statement, Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general for the US, described the DOJ as “painstakingly tracing bitcoin through the blockchain” to identify Sterlingov as the pseudonymous administrator behind Bitcoin Fog. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have acquired an undeserved reputation for being less traceable than conventional money, but evidence collected this way has brought down many criminals …

Migrants from Africa and Mideast who died in Bosnia get marble headstones and a memorial

Migrants from Africa and Mideast who died in Bosnia get marble headstones and a memorial

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BIJELJINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — In cities along a section of the Drina River, which forms a natural border between Bosnia and Serbia, there are simple, durable gravestones marking the final resting places of dozens of migrants who drowned in recent years trying to reach Western Europe. Their often decomposing bodies were retrieved from the Bosnian side of the river, examined by a forensic pathologist and then buried — unidentified and unclaimed — with no loved ones to mark the passing of their lives. The gravestones recently replaced decaying wooden markers, under which the remains of 41 people from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia seeking a better life in Europe were originally interred. The bodies have all been retrieved from the river since 2017 and buried in local cemeteries in three border towns of eastern Bosnia. The gravestones serve as a visual reminder of a prolonged effort by local volunteers to “preserve the dignity of nameless victims” who met their end in the Balkan country, and hopefully also make them easier to find if …

Missing bullets can be identified by ricochet residue at crime scenes

Missing bullets can be identified by ricochet residue at crime scenes

Published by skeptic

Analytical chemistry could help forensics team gain more information from crime scenes Orange County Register/MediaNews Group via Getty Images The brand of bullets used in a crime could be identified even when no bullets are found at the scene, by analysing tiny metal scraps they left behind. Forensics experts may attempt to link a suspect to a crime by analysing bullets or spent bullet casings found at the crime scene and demonstrating they were fired by the suspect’s gun. But doing so when the bullets are not present at the scene – for instance, when they have been removed… Source link

Prosecutors in Trump classified docs case plan to call digital forensics experts as witnesses

Prosecutors in Trump classified docs case plan to call digital forensics experts as witnesses

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Federal prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office revealed in court filings Friday that they intend to call several FBI employees as expert witnesses in their case alleging former President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents. The filing listed five witnesses who are described as experts in digital forensics or cellular analytics, with prosecutors indicating they’re expected to testify about the data and material extracted from devices and accounts belonging to Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were both accused of crimes alongside Trump. The experts are also expected to testify about extracted data related to the unnamed “Trump Employee 2.” Trump was indicted in June 2023 on criminal charges related to classified documents that were discovered in 2022 at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He was later hit with a superseding indictment, which alleged that Trump was part of a plan to delete security video. Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira have all pleaded not guilty in the case. Boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in …

‘Aliens’ found in Peru are dolls assembled with animal bones

‘Aliens’ found in Peru are dolls assembled with animal bones

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Aliens they are not. That’s what forensic experts in Peru said Friday about two doll-like figures and an alleged three-fingered hand that customs authorities in the South American country seized last year from a shipment heading to Mexico. The forensic experts with Peru’s prosecutor’s office said the objects were made with paper, glue, metal and human and animal bones. The findings quash some people’s belief that the figures come from an “alien center or come from another planet, all of which is totally false,” said forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada, who led the analysis. “The conclusion is simple: they are dolls assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues, therefore they were not assembled during pre-Hispanic times,” Estrada told reporters. “They are not extraterrestrials; they are not aliens.” The prosecutor’s office has not yet determined who owns the objects. Officials on Friday would only say that a Mexican citizen was the intended recipient of the objects before they were seized by customs agents in October. Mexican journalist José …

AI can tell if prints from two different fingers belong to same person

AI can tell if prints from two different fingers belong to same person

Published by skeptic

The prints from two fingers on the same hand may appear different, but AI can spot fundamental similarities Andrey_Kuzmin/Shutterstock Artificial intelligence can accurately identify whether or not fingerprints left by different fingers came from the same person. This could help forensic investigators uncover if one individual was present at separate crime scenes. Current technologies are only capable of matching fingerprints left by the same finger. But previous studies have hinted there may be fundamental similarities between all of a person’s fingertips. So, Gabe Guo at Columbia University in New York and his colleagues trained a machine learning model to determine if it could identify whether fingerprints from different fingers belong to the same person. In the training, they used more than 50,000 fingerprints from almost 1000 people. Samples came from public databases at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University at Buffalo in New York. All fingerprints belonged to deceased individuals or had been de-identified from people still alive. The team then tested the trained model on a separate set of …

Taylor Swift fan died of heat exhaustion at Rio concert, forensics report finds | Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift fan died of heat exhaustion at Rio concert, forensics report finds | Taylor Swift

Published by Sam

Heat exhaustion caused the death of a Brazilian fan who attended a Taylor Swift concert in November, according to a forensics report obtained by the Associated Press on Wednesday. Ana Clara Benevides, 23, passed out during Swift’s second song at the show in Rio de Janeiro on 17 November and died hours later at a local hospital. Temperatures in the city that day were at about 40C (105F). Fans lined up for hours before the show, and many accused organisers of failing to deliver enough water supplies for the more than 60,000 people attending the concert at the Nilton Santos Stadium. They said they had not been allowed to take their own water into the stadium. The report by Rio’s Forensic Medical Institute said Benevides’ heat exposure led to a cardiorespiratory arrest. It also said she did not have pre-existing conditions or substance abuse that could have led to her death. The forensics expert who analysed her body said she had “serious compromise of her lungs and sudden death” due to the heat. One of …

Digital forensics firm Binalyze raises M to investigate cyber threats

Digital forensics firm Binalyze raises $19M to investigate cyber threats

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Binalyze, a London-based startup building a toolset for digital forensics and incident response, this week announced that it raised $19 million in a Series A round led by Molten Ventures with participation from Cisco Investments, Citibank Ventures and Deutsche Bank Ventures. Founder and CEO Emre Tinaztepe says that the tranche, which brings Binalyze’s total raised to $30.5 million, will be put toward — in his own words — “reacting to market conditions effectively” and “continuing to rapidly scale.” “The mission was — and still is — to disrupt and innovate the digital forensics industry to make forensics accessible to a broader set of use cases,” Tinaztepe told TechCrunch in an email interview. “To achieve this democratization of digital forensics, it’s been necessary to make it lightning fast, remote, scalable, automated and integrated with other security platforms.” Binalyze’s fundraising comes at a tough time for cybersecurity startups, at least in terms of the raw capital flowing through the sector. Startups in cyber saw around $2.7 billion in VC funding in Q1 2023, up from $2.4 billion …