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CERT helped U.S. crack international ID theft case
(The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 5--Carnegie Mellon University expertise played a part in cracking the biggest identity theft case ever.
Computer forensics experts at the Software Engineering Institute helped the U.S. Secret Service investigate a gang accused of stealing 40 million credit and debit card numbers, the university announced Thursday.
Eleven people were indicted in August on charges of hacking into wireless networks at TJ Maxx, OfficeMax and seven other discount retailers. The accused conspirators, from the United States, Ukraine, China and Estonia, are charged with selling stolen card numbers to fraudulently withdraw money from automated teller machines.
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey last month called the case "the single largest and most complex identity theft case ever prosecuted in this country."
Secret Service agents who visited the university's Collaborative Innovation Center yesterday for a tour by three Democratic congressmen declined to explain details of how the CMU experts were involved.
But James Gehr, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Pittsburgh office, said the software institute's cyber security and forensics division, called CERT, did more than just offer training and software.
"When we locate a suspect, our agents with a warrant go through the door ... The CERT team is right there with us, because more often than not, the suspect has a number of electronic devices they're using to commit crimes," Gehr said.
"The agents and CERT employees work side-by-side," said Christian Roylo, an agent based in Washington who said he frequently enlists CERT's help.
CERT technician Cal Waits demonstrated CryptHunter, a program that lets agents tell immediately if encrypted information is hidden in a computer.
That's crucial, Waits said, because if agents unplug a machine to take it back to the lab for analysis, incriminating data can vanish.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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