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[Posted on Thur, Sept. 8, 2006]
New laboratory to help FBI, local policeBUSTED: Forensic laboratory helps recover erased hard-drive files and catch criminals
Source: Amherst Record web site (www.theamherstrecord.com)
By Dan Miner
Criminals around the region will have to think twice about computer-based identity theft.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the opening of its new Western New York Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory Thursday.
The lab’s primary purpose is to aid criminal investigations by recovering files on a computer that a user thought was deleted, said Detective Scott Sheehan of the City of Tonawanda Police Department. The City of Tonawanda has used the existing lab on Genesee Street in four or five cases in the last year, Sheehan said.
The new facility is in the Erie County Central Police Services Campus at 45 Elm St. in Buffalo.
“It specializes in recovering information off of hard drives that has been deleted,” Sheehan said.
Sheehan outlined a case he’s currently involved in regarding identity theft in which the laboratory is being used.
A woman came to the police station complaining of identity theft on her credit card statement. Tonawanda police then tracked her credit card sales and found that many of the thefts were occurring through purchases on Internet pornography sites.
Police then obtained the IP address, which is the address an Internet user is assigned by his or her service provider and can be tracked to a computer, from the pornographic Web sites.
Police saw that all of the purchases came from one IP address, so they served a subpoena for the service provider to give the location of that Internet user.
With that information, they obtained a search warrant and confiscated the computer, which they then brought to the old laboratory. The laboratory recovered Web sites and files from the hard drive of that computer, including the actual forms that the suspect filled out with the victim’s credit card information.
The investigation in the case is ongoing.
Both the FBI and the Erie County Sheriff’s office could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Contact Dan Miner at 693-1000, Ext. 115.
[ Original Article on the Amherst Record Web Site ]