The Tor Browser

The book I read to research this post was Online Privacy An Introduction by William Rowley which is an excellent e-book that I read at Kindle Unlimited. This book is mostly about The Tor Browser and accessing the darknet. The darknet is a rather seedy version of the internet I think only accessible with Tor that isn’t indexed by the major search engines. Domain names are random series of letters and numbers and sites are things like drug dealing e-commerce ones, guns for hire and some unregulated polical ones. It is like a version of the internet rather like the wild west depicted in westerns. The Tor Browser developed by the US Navy and described as like as like a series of onion rings with many layers of encryption and security does the job it is meant to do extremely well. It can’t have it cover of many voluntarily IP addressed of which there are hundreds and the route to your computer is routed through these penetrated in any way other than susceptible software on your computer that can maybe expose your identity. Tor is based on Firefox another more commonly used browser and Tor has other layers of securiy like the ability to use multiple identities. If you go on many many mainstream sites like Twitter and Facebook they are sometimes able to interogate it and despite it not being used to access those sites find out all sorts of information. I don’t think I personally would have any need for Tor as it is very clandestine but this remains an interesting book. The book is only short at around 35 pages. I did enjoy reading it and do recommend it.

Computer Scams, Shams and Spam

The book I read to research this post was Computer Scams, Shams & Spam by Pam Hogan which is an excellent book that I read at kindle unlimited. This book is about the various online hoaxes and frauds tricksters use to get money from you. One thing you should watch is if someoe asks you to wire money or send cash as these aren’t secure methods of payment. One type of fraud is someone phones or e-mails you and supposedly verifies some of your information which they have got from dumpster diving or going through your litter. They may quote information like your account number which they saw on your bank statement and claim they are from the bank or some official agency. They then ask for the security code off the back of your credit card. This information of course lets them take money from your bank account and isn’t displayed on your bank statement. No one official would ever ask for this information and this does happen it is best to contact your bank and law enforcement. Another scheme called the Nigerian letter is someone asks if they can launder money in your bank account and will give you a share of the proceeds. Sometimes someone doing this will give a hard luck story and claim to be in trouble. This invariably continues with them asking you for your bank details so they can pilfer your account and they will often try to get you to wire them a certain fee. They may even ask you to travel to an African country to meet them. Laundering money in itself is highly illegal. If you get an e-mail like this don’t even answer it as it will verify your e-mail address. This book looks at a variety of scams like this and is a reasonable length at around 120 pages. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It’s a real eye openner and do recommend it.

Technology Assisted Research

The book I read to research this post was Insider’s Guide To Technology Assisted Research by Ernst & Young which is a very good book that I bought from kindle. This book is mainly reviewing the many messages and e-mails on various devices for legal purposes. It is mainly done from the American legal system point of view. It is around 100 pages so is reasonably short. I think this book is written by a company that specializes in this field. In another book I read that the potential use and number of devices needing to be checked is hugely overstretching the resources available. In many items which might disprove or prove a case or even lead to other prosecutions go unchecked. If you just think of the number of e-mails which are on a typical account and the potential cost of checking which if it is only a minor offence someone is accused of it isn’t worth it. In many cases keyword searches are done to keep costs down which as both agree is a good compromise. The methods used in retrieving data unless the defense think something is wrong often aren’t examined in a lot of detail in court. There is also the hassle especially in corporate cases that things like e-mail might need to be translated. If it say french or german the cost of getting a legal person who is fluent in this is relatively low and they are relatively plentiful. A problem comes say if the language is Japanese which is fairly commonly used but a legal translator is harder to find hence more expensive. This is an interesting book and I do recommend. I find digital forensics in general quite interesting although I know a lot of people would find it boring.

 

Cybercrime

The book I read to research this post was Tangled Web by Richard Power which is an excellent book which I bought from a local secondhand bookshop. Cybercriminals often wouldn’t dream of robbing someone in person but somehow a computer makes it less personal so they think it’s acceptable. Often they assume all computer users are rich after all they can afford a computer & think they are like Robin Hood robbing the rich to feed the poor. It’s more like robbing the rich to line their pockets. A lot of these crooks have little computer & use programs they buy on the internet via a search & we call these script kiddies. The more organised ones tend to work in groups, these tend to write all or some of their software. Foreign spy agencies tend to hire the more able hackers to find specific information. When the west bombed Kosovo they uploaded viruses onto the Serbian defence computer network so they didn’t shoot down any aircraft. The best way to learn about cybercrime is to browse underground bulletin boards & this is often done by white hat crackers & people who secure networks. Cybercrooks are often called black hat crackers. These crooks are often difficult to stereotype but are often older than the teenage stereotype. In many cases they have good jobs & are in relationships. Often when someone is hacking they use little more than a laptop & a modem & many use the local cybercafe which makes it harder to trace the culprit. While many other types of crime are declining, cybercrime is definalely increasing & many people especially companies don’t report it because of potential bad publicity also it’s difficult to prosecute.