TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: FOOTPRINTS IN THE DATA
Digital or cyber forensics is the process used to figure out which actors are behind a hack like this, and how they did it. U.S. officials speaking privately said that China had stolen logins and passwords to perpetrate the hack, though the Obama administration did not formally accuse China. Considering that data theft on this scale occurs during peacetime, the ability to protect the cyber space where digital data lives, and to analyze attempts to manipulate or steal it, is probably one of the least understood but most neces- sary components of any future defense strategy.
“When I started, digital forensics was just about looking at hard drives on comput- ers. Now it’s everything you touch,” said Special Agent Patrick Eller, lead digi- tal forensics examiner with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, in an interview with Army AL&T. Digital forensics examiners can piece together the movements of persons of interest, place them in a particular location at a partic- ular time, and gather evidence about feelings, motives and more with the aid of powerful software. “Watches, FitBits, phones, tablets, computers, all the way down to the programs on them: the chat applications, like SnapChat, Facebook, WhatsApp”—the universe of data sources is vast, Eller said.
Special agents from the command (known as CID), like Eller, collect, preserve and analyze data from digital devices to “build digital timelines, which is what supports the whole case.” Digi- tal forensics examiners don’t usually go to the crime scene. Instead, Eller and several other examiners train the CID agents who work the crime scene. “We teach [agents] to identify and collect digi- tal evidence,” such as any phones or other devices present, Eller said.
(Image by Getty Images)
WHAT THINGS?
The “internet of things” refers to the expanding group of products and appliances that connect to the internet so that, at the most basic level, the product’s owner—or someone else—can operate the item wire- lessly, directing it to turn on or off with a smartphone app.
The next level up is the idea of a “smart home,” where the appliances and products can exchange data and talk to each other. Google’s Nest thermostat automatically monitors whether anyone is in the house, for example, and will tell the dryer to keep tumbling your clothes until you return so they don’t wrinkle.
THE SCENE OF THE CRIME A crime scene can be crawling with digi- tal data that’s not immediately visible, because of the proliferation of internet- connected devices and how frequently we interact with them. “Tink about what’s called the ‘internet of things,’ everything in your house being connected to the internet,” Eller said. ”I can turn on lights in my house, I can open my garage, I can start appliances, I can lock doors from my phone.
“For us as examiners, it’s a challenge because we have to figure out how to get the data out of these devices in a
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forensically sound manner,” he said. After the agents on scene collect all the sources of digital information, they apply for search authorization, and send the device and a specific request for evidence to the digital forensics examiner.
Te laws and precedents covering what digital forensics examiners can look for, and what permissions they need to do so, were established before many of the current tools and techniques became available. But the process still begins with an authorization to search, either a warrant issued by a magistrate or a consent to search given by the device’s
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