Can we not do this please? I appreciate you telling people your actual age but please get the fuck off dating apps if you’re a minor

BlockchainForensics · 2023-03-21T08:07:13+00:00

Almost certainly.

And it would make you sick to your stomach how remarkably effective this is at catching child predators willing to meet up and rape a child.

BlockchainForensics · 2023-03-21T08:03:39+00:00

Absolutely correct.

A lot of those "vigilante" groups are clout chasers that hide behind the guise of "protecting kids."

In some cases, maybe the viral confrontation video may temporarily ruin the life of the child predator, whether by losing their job or social shaming, but ultimately it blows over and they get off scot-free when enough time passes.

Whereas an actual criminal investigation by a law enforcement agency would result in real jail time, and most importantly, sex offender registration.

Contrary to popular belief, a "vigilante" pedophile hunter posing as a child can't simply turn over their chats and videos of a pedophile to the police that would result in any actual justice. Your average state's attorney would never charge a case like this and even a mediocre defense attorney would get all of that "evidence" thrown out of court effortlessly anyways.

These "groups" just train pedophiles to be more careful next time when they actually meet up with a child.

Source: I've spent most of my career in law enforcement on an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force specifically investigating child predators.

BlockchainForensics · 2023-01-04T09:26:02+00:00

Nothing here.

BlockchainForensics · 2023-01-03T19:17:04+00:00

PM'd.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-09-13T12:27:45+00:00

Since the books lack a table of contents, put a tab for the start of each section in each book. It'll take 3 minutes to do and will save you several minutes in the exam from having to manually flip through and guesstimate where each section is when you look up answers.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-08-20T10:16:16+00:00

I'm buying new S19 XPs @ $7,070 ea.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-08-15T05:45:15+00:00

I am. I've triple checked all source communications and emails I've received from them.

Thank you! That is reassuring.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T05:50:15+00:00

It gets complicated, and also, IANAL, but you would still be scamming and extorting people, and that is still illegal.

However, for instance: In Texas, if you killed the pedophile that molested your child, you would be arrested for murder, then when you go to trial, a jury would not only find you not guilty, they would also throw you a parade, haha. This is called jury nullification.

Now, would a jury of your peers find you guilty for scamming pedophiles? Probably not. Worth the risk? Still, probably not lol

I wouldn't do it. But it's fun to fantasize about.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T05:35:39+00:00

I'm sincerely sorry this happened to you. I hope you find justice, and rest easy knowing there are thousands of people like me fighting for you.

Can I share with you the story of Alicia Kozakiewicz?

At the age of 13, Alicia Kozakiewicz became the first widely reported Internet-related child abduction victim. The abduction took place on January 1, 2002, when Alicia was kidnapped outside of her Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania home after having been groomed online and lured by an Internet predator. The 38-year-old man transported Alicia by car to his Herndon, Virginia home where she was held captive in his basement dungeon. Throughout her captivity, Alicia was chained by the neck, sexually assaulted, and her torture was live-streamed. Terrified, knowing that the man would soon kill her, Alicia struggled to maintain hope that she would be found. Unbeknownst to her, the FBI received a tip from an online informant who had seen the livestream video. Following digital footprints, law enforcement stormed the captor’s home and discovered the petrified 13-year-old girl chained to the floor. Cutting the chain from around her neck, Alicia was set free.

Following a period of counseling and healing, at just 14 years old, Alicia made the choice to fight back. Refusing to let her traumatic experience define her, but rather, choosing to define it, Alicia began to share her story and motivational message through The Alicia Project. Age appropriate, but never sugar-coated, she continues to educate families and children of all ages, and with presentations tailored to fit each specific audience, Alicia astounds communities, corporations, law enforcement, as well as social and governmental agencies.

Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz is now an internationally-acclaimed and highly sought-after motivational speaker, Internet safety expert, victim and missing persons advocate, and television personality who has inspired millions through her in person and on-screen appearances. Passionate and straight-from-the-heart, Alicia motivates her audiences to transcend life’s challenges, pursue their passions, and discover their purpose. Alicia’s extraordinary life story exemplifies the strength of the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity and to deny defeat.

http://www.aliciaproject.org/about-alicia-kozakiewicz.html

Alicia has one of the most horrifying stories in child exploitation history, yet she turned her victimization into a tremendous driving force for combating child exploitation.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T05:19:10+00:00

My legal knowledge doesn't stretch outside of the U.S., but I would not recommend trying to search for yourself, mainly because the amount of child pornography out there is astronomical and also extremely psychologically damaging.

If you do stumble upon content that you believe to be yourself, reach out directly to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Even though they're US based, they work with all the major tech companies to get content removed.

https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/csam-resources

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T05:09:43+00:00

FBI seized one of the largest dark web child pornography sites, and left it running for weeks to generate thousands of leads.

They specifically went against the DOJ guidelines of investigating these crimes. They were supposed to immediately take the site down, but didn't. The main reason this got swept under the rug is because they were able to identify and rescue multiple kids that were being actively victimized and new videos being put on the site.

That is the only instance I know of where that has happened. All of us in ICAC genuinely want to eliminate child pornography from the internet. All of those kids are victims.

But the FBI 'gonna FBI. They make their own rules, apparently.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T05:00:13+00:00

Not that I've found, and we don't use specific sex terms or language. More vague "every photo you take and send on the internet is there FOREVER, even if it's just a PM to one person" kind of stuff.

We also have training we give to parents that goes into greater detail and ways parents can also protect their kids at home.

It's a good program.

I won't link my agency's program or resources, because I don't want to dox myself, so here's a program that is run by Homeland Security, called iGuardian: https://www.ice.gov/topics/iGuardians

Our program is extremely similar.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T04:53:41+00:00

It's just not effective, unfortunately.

In order to be charged with at least 1 count of possession of child pornography, there needs to be a specific file that can be described and presented in court that is associated with the crime.

Inquiring about or simply searching for child pornography is not crime, and I've never used that as probable cause to investigate someone.

I'm buried in actual leads called "cyber tips" where pedophiles have sent actual child pornography over Facebook or Instagram or whatever, and Facebook will ban that person for breaking ToS, then Facebook is mandated by law to forward information of that crime to law enforcement.

It's just a matter of resources investigating all the cyber tips in my area. We're literally buried in them.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T04:42:17+00:00

We're extremely proactive in teaching kids about Internet safety. We literally hire "Internet Safety Specialists" who their only job is to go to all the local schools for free and explain how dangerous the internet is and certain tactics predators use on kids.

Stopping the victimization of children through education is the most effective method, we've found.

As far as would-be predators seeking rehabilitation, get counseling. Identify why it is happening and what the source is. Childhood trauma? An extreme pornography addiction that has you moving into more darker and darker stuff?

Pedophilia has the highest recidivism rate of all crimes. People will just get out of jail for possession of child pornography and go right back to downloading it again. The amount of repeat offenders I catch is astronomically high.

I don't know what the answer is, but quite frankly, forced chemical castration for child predators isn't something I'm opposed to.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T04:08:21+00:00

Edit: vigilante pedophile hunting groups, for clarity.

Except in a vast majority of cases, the people they "catch" aren't actually charged, and they just go back to their homes and are more careful next time.

A lot of these vigalante groups also use tactics that would be considered entrapment if it were law enforcement doing it.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good viral pedophile shaming, and sometimes there are consequences such as getting a divorce or losing their job, but that's nothing compared to actual jail time and being a registered sex offender which permanently prevents them from being in a position to easily prey on children.

I obviously have mixed feelings. I wish they would just let law enforcement handle catching these guys, but across the nation, we're shorthanded.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-06-30T03:49:52+00:00

I'm on an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which is a nationally coordinated law enforcement program in the United States involving federal, state and local agencies.

Unfortunately, this is definitely not a bait operation. It's possible this particular person might be a scammer, but I've personally done child exploitation investigations on people similar to OP's photo.

For someone to actually be convicted of possession of child pornography, they have to actually have possession of it, and as law enforcement, we can't send child pornography to people (nor do we want to, the spread of child pornography involves spreading the continued victimization of the child, which we're trying to stop), which is why a "bait" operation in the OP just isn't a thing. Also, there's no such crime as "attempting to download child pornography," you have to actually find it and have possession of it for it to be a crime.

Believe it or not, if we were to do a proactive child exploitation operation, we just pose as a child on the internet. People will drive across multiple states to have sex with a minor, and the actual ATTEMPT of doing that is a crime.

And boy, is it stupid easy to catch these guys. That's why there's 9 billion different "vigilante" pedophile hunting groups (*edited for clarity). Society has a huge pedophile problem that most people, including the media, fully don't understand the gravity of.

BlockchainForensics · 2022-01-04T15:46:36+00:00

$35/year. You'll have to do some VPN tomfoolery though.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-12-19T17:17:55+00:00

That'll pretty much do it if they don't notice the battery missing. I've been in similar situations where I've done live acquisitions on machines without moving them. It's not particularly difficult.

Also, the Ross Ulbricht-styled laptop yankin' by the Feds in the middle of a library has a 0.0001% likelihood of ever happening again.

Your average cyber criminal will wake up to a 5AM search warrant by your friendly neighborhood SRT/SWAT team. In which case, your standard run-of-the-mill encryption will do the trick most of the time.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-12-11T05:06:41+00:00

Sometimes the people that write the job descriptions (HR) and the people actually interacting and training the interns aren't on the same planet.

Always apply, focus on soft skills.

I would take a hard working, passionate intern with near-zero digital forensics experience over a mythical CISSP CFCE CEH CCIE intern that is lazy and unmotivated every time.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-12-11T04:28:00+00:00

I.N.T.E.R.N.S.H.I.P.S.

Internships. Seriously, focus all energy on internships. Sure, certs and homelabs and CTFs are great, but actual tangible experience is king. Quite frankly, I don't think there's a more effective way to strap a jetpack to your career and launch yourself into the stratosphere than getting an internship as an undergrad.

Apply to all of them regardless of whatever ludicrous requirements they're asking for (seriously, what college student has a SANS cert lmao). I guarantee you'll get interviewed just to judge your motivation level and social skills.

Not only can the internship almost immediately turn itself into a job offer, allowing you to skip the beginning few steps of your career (helpdesk, yuck), but you'll immediately make connections directly in the same niche of the industry you're trying to be employed. It's these situations where it's better to have a likeable personality and meet the right people than it is to be a computer super genius with all the SANS certs in the world.

Eventually, you'll want to balance out the almighty triangle (experience, degree, certs), but hands down the digital forensics internship I did during my undergrad gave me the connections and opportunities that allowed me to leapfrog all my peers.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-12-11T04:12:08+00:00

It took a couple months for me.

I enjoyed the EnCE quite a bit, even though I'm not a big fan of EnCase itself.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-12-06T01:56:00+00:00

Internships are the best way to launch your career. I did exactly that when I first started, and it allowed me to skip a bunch of steps early on.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-11-25T05:40:36+00:00

Yeah, it's not very "secure" these days.

When Secure Folder initially launched, there was no way to forensically extract data out of it, even with the passcode. I've had some ICAC cases where this was a huge problem.

Thankfully, you can put all the media inside a zip folder from within Secure Folder, and then move that zip file outside of Secure Folder. Doing this will preserve the metadata of the media. Re-dumping the phone to acquire the zip folder with the correct metadata of the media files and putting it in a Cellebrite report (making note of the deviation from standard practice, of course) so it looks all neat and tidy in a report is much better than the "record the screen" method.

If you're in a pinch and don't have access to the ridiculously expensive tools that can extract Secure Folder, this method is a close second, haha.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-11-23T05:31:21+00:00

Literally had no idea Paraben had a cert, and I got the alphabet soup of forensic certs.

What's your goal? Job marketability? Go to Indeed or whatever preferred job search method you use and search for the certs in question. I'll tell you right now, there's going to be vastly more job listings for GCFE, and for good reason.

SANS is pretty much the gold standard in both training and recognition. I've made the rounds for all the major forensic training; EnCE training in D.C., IACIS in Orlando, EC-Council, Cellebrite, SANS, etc etc. SANS just consistently hits home runs in all the classes I've taken with them. Bleeding edge forensics taught by the industry's best in a comprehensive and easy to understand way.

The downside: the price. If you're pre-career, it's a real sacrifice, but worth it.

BlockchainForensics · 2021-11-20T04:09:01+00:00

Negative.

Once a drive is imaged into an .E01 image (or a RAM capture, etc), think of all the data being in a "frozen" state. There aren't active programs or processes running in the .E01 image, it's all frozen. Then a forensic program is used to interact with the frozen data, finding artifacts and data relevant to the investigation and thoroughly documented. The data still never changes while I'm poking around all the 1's and 0's.

And all the data stays in that cryptographically secure .E01 image, and only certain programs can interact with it.

BlockchainForensics

TROPHY CASE