Automating the Capture and Analysis of Evidence
April 25, 2008
An IBM Research technology is helping investigators analyze clues and solve violent crimes in an expedited manner. It allows detectives to transmit evidence gathered at a crime scene to a police database. This can then be retrieved, shared, searched and analyzed from squad cars, streets as well as other location and jurisdictions.
The ability to automate the capture and analysis of evidence will greatly decrease the administrative burden on the police officers to help them focus on their main responsibility of crime prevention. This is now possible through the advanced data mining and content management tool that converts video and audio material such as wiretaps, interrogations, surveillance tapes and text-based evidence such as interview notes or witness statements into digital files that can be queried for common links, patterns, objects and even faces.
April 24, 2008
A firewall is a system that is designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network which can be implemented in both hardware and software or a combination of both. It prevents unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks to connect to the Internet particularly intranets. Each message passes through the firewall and those that do not meet the specified security criteria are blocked.
Firewall techniques can be any of the following: packet filter, application gateway, circuit-level gateway and proxy servers. In the first technique, each packet entering or leaving the network is examined and is either accepted or rejected based on the user-defined rules. The second technique applies security mechanisms to specific applications. Circuit-level gateway applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP connection is established. The last technique intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network and effectively hides the true network addresses.
April 23, 2008
One of the security features in making U.S. money is the use of the Intaglio Printing. Intaglio means “raised”. It is a technology that is rather complicated but is essentially placing about 60 layers of paint on the same place on the note and applying an effort which equals 60 tons in weight. Through this method, the letters or drawings acquire volume which can be felt by the fingers when touching a bill. The printing is applied so strongly that the paint is impossible to scratch off.
The process begins with an engraving which is painstakingly produced by a master engraver on steel plates. These shall form the actual production plates during the printing process. The enormous pressure applied in printing causes the paper to be embossed with the ink which other printing techniques cannot duplicate.
April 16, 2008
In the Internet world, everything seems to happen very quickly including business decisions, information-searching and personal interactions. Things unfold even faster as there are almost no limitations as to transaction time as compared to the fixed business hours of a typical brick-and-mortar establishment. It is inevitable that people who engage in fraud will see this opportunity and operate in Internet time as well. This means being able to send messages worldwide simultaneously in seconds and posting web site information that is readily accessible from anywhere in the world.
The Internet advantage has made it possible to carry out fraudulent schemes a lot faster than what was possible in the past. Fraud schemes that use one or more components of the Internet such as chat-rooms, e-mails, message boards and websites have victimized not a few Internet users, thus the need for more awareness and common sense in online transactions.
