Dec 4, 2009
Source: Chicago Tribune

By Daarel Burnette II Tribune Reporter

Chicago lab goes after digital crooks

Chicago Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory sifts through computers, cell phones

Trying to conceal wrongdoing, criminals often do whatever possible to get rid of digital evidence, sometimes acting in a moment of panic.

That can include anything from deleting e-mails to shooting computers with a shotgun or even burning the house down.

It's left to the Chicago Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory to try and recover the data.

"The stuff isn't always looking pretty when it comes in here," John Parcol, a Chicago forensic examiner, said Thursday.

Fourteen investigators work out of the West Loop lab, poring over records in computers, cell phone and video game systems for evidence to fortify fraud, child pornography and other criminal cases.

Agents here recovered former Gov. George Ryan's deleted e-mails, pieced together surveillance video of bank robberies and analyzed financial data in high-profile white-collar crimes.

They handle about 500 cases a year in northern Illinois, about 40 percent of them involving child pornography, said Keith Johnson, the lab's director.

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory recently accredited the 6-year-old lab, officials said Thursday.

The lab is funded by the FBI and staffed by state, local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Agents with computer science backgrounds and extensive training by the FBI unscramble security videos, scrape hard drives and piece together cell phone history.

The department strives to keep pace with technological advances by frequently updating software and buying new equipment, Johnson said.

Among the challenges, technology allows criminals to conceal more data in smaller storage units, Johnson said.

And criminals have grown more savvy and knowledgeable in their use of the Internet to hide their identities.

"We're constantly trying to keep pace," Johnson said.

The lab consists of a few rooms on South Canal Street. Unlike the TV show "CSI," there are no fancy touch-screen computers.

" 'CSI' is just a bunch of make-believe magic," said Paul Rettig, a forensic examiner at the lab.

dburnette@tribune.com

[Chicago RCFL web site ]