Agape Blog

This article is primarily for the aspirants and investigators of the IT forensic World. It is a fact that the technique of capturing the evidence from the crime site decides the course of an investigation. In order to make this process more effective and reliable keeping the parameters like significances and volatile nature of data in business. Here arises the need of an innovative technology that can be applied to capture “live” evidence on a computer at the scene of an investigation before it is powered down.

This article is written with a purpose to provide you the glance over the efficient software technologies which are especially innovated to craft investigating procedures trouble-free & absolute.

To facilitate & decipher the evidences collection procedure simple, Agape Python, which stands separate from the crowd of others, designed exclusively for law enforcement agencies. It provides fast, easy-to-use, comprehensive, cost effective forensic capabilities which require nominal computer knowledge to apply. It is integrated with number of commands which can considerably minimize the time to collect digital evidence at the crime site. It eliminates the necessity to seize a computer itself, which usually involves disconnecting from a network, potentially losing data. Instead, the investigator can scan for evidence on site. In view of the fact that the network data is so volatile this may be lost in a process of turning off the computer.

It is an all in one software that supports Index Hard Disks on the fly, decrypt passwords and analyze a computer’s Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer and much more…. with lighting speed.

And all these unique functionalities comes in a light weight, easy to carry, ready to use plug-in USB “thumb drive” to seize the data from the computer that may have been used in crimes without taking into the custody. So Just “PLUG IN & EXTRACT”

Jayesh Bellani
Executive: Fraud Management System
Agape Inc

Not astonishingly, we found that most of the services we tested minimally did not provide us with the information that they claimed they would.

The majority of the services gave us little more than the name itself. often with an address that was obsolete or inaccurate. With claims of being able to provide us with full employment history, criminal records, credit history, and much more, we were sad to see that in most cases after all was said and done, we could have found the alike information in the local phone book!

Although most of the services we reviewed fell short of our expectations, we recommend you to choose a service that truly stood out from the crowd which would provide you nearly all the information you are looking for… including extensive contact info (email addresses, phone numbers, and both work and home addresses), criminal records, credit history, residential history, and extensive employment history. And basic information for:

When should you report the Cyber Crime?
• Spyware
• Phishing
• Spam
• Identity Theft
• Online Shopping Fraud

Spyware: Spyware can steal your credit card numbers and passwords. Switch your home page, or re-direct your web searches to unwanted sites. Display annoying ads, slow your PC to a crawl, or even control it remotely. If you think your computer has spyware, report cyber crime.

Phishing: Phishing is an e-mail fraud method in which the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking email in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. Typically, the messages appear to come from well known and trustworthy Web sites. Store e-mail spam that phish for information about your company, bank, or organization. Lodge your cyber crime & forward the respective email information.

Spam: Spam is unwanted, invasive Internet advertising, typically for get-rich-quick schemes, or probable scams. Spam consumes your resources. Networks of virus-infected computers, Botnets (number of Internet computers that, although their owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward transmissions including spam or viruses to other computers on the Internet) are used to send about 80% of spam. E-mail addresses are collected from chartrooms, websites, newsgroups, and viruses which harvest users’ address books, and are sold to other spammers. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-mail addresses. Report your complain & forward the respective message.

Identity Theft: It is a term used to refer to fraud that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get other benefits. The term is relatively new and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when he or she is held responsible for the perpetrator’s actions. If your information has been misused, file a report about your identity theft.

Online Shopping Fraud: If you have problems during a transaction, try to work them out directly with the seller, buyer or the website operator. If that does fails, file your complaint.

Jayesh Bellani
Executive: Fraud Management System
Agape Inc

Agape Inc, India’s first ever cyber forensic company launches Tech Pathways for Indian Market. Technology Pathways is a leading edge provider of computer security tools and services for the Corporate IT, government and legal communities.

This launch will underscore the ongoing commitment of Agape Inc to provide expanded services within its products and services as new security standards and methods evolve.

The ProDiscover® family of security products combines high quality, performance, and ease of use at affordable prices Technology Pathways provides products and services for:
• Incident Response - Quickly investigate and positively determine if any compromises have been made to your systems as the result of an incident – without taking your system out of service.
• System Audits – Effectively audit systems throughout the network to insure that they have not been compromised
• Internal Investigations – Investigate and monitor internal computer systems to insure compliance with the law or corporate policies.
• Computer Forensics – Thoroughly examine all data on a computer system, locate any evidence that is stored on that system and safely preserve that evidence for use in a court of law.
• Digital Discovery – Find and produce evidentiary quality electronic documents for civil proceedings.

For Further Product Information & price information mail us at: michelle[at]agapeinc.in (replace [at] with @).

To log online Cyber Crime Complaint call our Toll Free No. at 1800 209 6789 (For India Only)

Jayesh Bellani
Executive: Fraud Management System

In the world of cyber crime, where evil bytes are fast replacing whizzing bullets. Given the unrestricted number of free Web sites, the Internet is undeniably open to exploitation. Known as cyber crimes, these activities involve the use of computers, the Internet, cyberspace and the World Wide Web. There has also been a rise in crimes by the use of computers where hackers and computer professionals attack the government agencies, corporate offices, etc, and mostly the young people and teens are working as hackers and making use of computer as a weapon.

Many computer users will try to hide their tracks if what they are engaged in, is improper. But the technique used by typical computer user will be obvious to a forensic specialist. Whereas, Hackers and Professional Experts have advance knowledge to hide or even erase the inappropriate content from hard drive in sophisticated way which cannot be retrieve back easily.

For this Platform, Agape, India’s leading Cyber forensic Company has developed a software toolkit that allow you to be more effective and efficient in your hard drive forensic Analysis by providing advanced work environment for computer forensic examiners for less money. This set of tools helps you identify whether or not a targeted computer system was used to access inappropriate information. Compared to its competitors, Agape’s Toolkit is more efficient to use, runs fast, is not as resource-hungry, finds Active files as well as deleted files from unallocated spaces called “Slack” & offer many features that the others lack, and it comes at a fraction of the cost!

Toolkit includes different Software tools, each taking different role in the examination. It runs under Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008. The suit is incorporated with the write protection software and Hash Algorithm which ensures data integrity and eliminates any chance of data overwriting. Thus, Empowering the evidence that can be used in Court of Law. Suites include.

Text Analyzer enables quick search over hard drives, zip disks and floppy disk for key words or specific patterns of text. Its features include bookmarking and advanced searching which includes multiple words & multiple phrases searching.

Case Catalyst allows reviewing, searching and reporting of data in XML and HTML format and performs indexing of the files. It includes bookmarking and advanced searching features including multiple words & multiple phrases searching. It supports 200+ file formats for different applications.

Email Inspector is comprehensive forensically sound e-mail examination tools available for searching all supported e-mail files from system. It supports almost all e-mail files formats like Outlook e-mails files (.pst, .msg, .eml), Opera e-mail files (.mbs), Eudora, Netscape Messenger, Pegasus Mail, Calypso, FoxMail, .mbx, .pbx, .tbb etc file formats. It extract e-mails from suspect’s system and converts in readable format. Software also supports report making in XML and HTML format.

Net History Analyzer is a forensic software which acquire all internet history on system like Visited url history , cookies history, system’s internet temporary file and all internet pages that is html File saved in system and system bookmark file. Its functions include bookmarking and also support multiple words & phrases searching. Generates reports in XML and HTML.

RegExtractor is used for analyzing Windows registry entries. It finds incorrect or obsolete information in the registry. RegExtractor works with registry files copied from other computers. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users, preferences of the PC, etc. Generates Report in XML and HTML Format, Loads Multiple Registries.

For further information on our products and service visit URL: - www.agapeinc.in or E-MAIL us at info[at]agapeinc.in (replace [at] with @) or SMS AGAPE at 54646

Dear team,

I am greatly thankful to the fraud management team at AGAPE for taking my case (orkut profile hacked) seriously.

I had filed a complaint at various places but could not receive any help from them. But after registering my complaint at AGAPE, within a week I received a mail from the fraud management team giving the details of my hacked ID. It was unbelievable. A million thanks for such an incredible job.

I give my high regards for such an effort done by you.

888888

Dear Sir,

I would like to express my thanks in getting my fake orkut profile blocked.

This has really helped me cause I was been terribly impersonated on orkut for months which had adverse effect on me and my family as there was a lot of personal information in the profile.

Thanks a lot for considering my case sensitive and helping me get back to my normal life.

888888

Hi,
You have done really good work. I tried to get this job done by many other means but nothing worked. Thank you so much for your assistance and the time you spent. God bless you.

Regards,
8888888

Dear Sir,

Thanks a lot for your support, pls note that I am able to open my e-mail id, now I want to change the password, I am trying to change that, but when I click on to change password it ask for previous passord & new passord,

I entered *********** as previous password, & a new passord, but it not changing and showing that the previous password entered is in correct.

Pls help.

Best Regards,

88888888

Note: Name of the client is not shown due to privacy & security reasons.

Cyber crime is no longer an alien term for anyone today. We have been hearing about it, reading about it and talking about it, quoting examples of some victims or fraudsters. With advancements in technology, criminals and their ways of commiting crimes are also getting advanced. To tackle this menace, we need some strong cyber crime prevention measures, may be in the form of cyber cells or cyber activity monitoring services. In India, we have very few cyber cells that can be easily counted on fingers. Of course this is not enough to address the enormous issue of cyber crime.

Recently, Mohali police took a lead in getting the state’s first cyber crime police station-cum-forensic science laboratory. The Rs 8-crore state-of-the-art project will end the Punjab Police’s dependency on forensic science laboratories in other states for various tests.

The building — which will house a cyber crime police station and laboratories in Physics, Texilogy, lie-detection, Biology, Chemistry and Ballistic, as part of forensic science — will come up within two years. The Punjab Police Housing Corporation (PPHC) is the executing agency of the project. Also, a training institute, the Punjab Police Training Institute for private security guards at Jahan Khelan is expected to complete by June 2009. The institute, which is worth Rs 10 crore, will provide training to 4,000 security guards every year and with the implementation of the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005.

This project is a step forward for the Punjab Police towards becoming cyber-savvy and a hi-tech police force with effective investigation of crimes through advanced modes. Such steps are what is needed to ensure that the technology does not harm people. Such steps indicate that India is getting ready to tackle hi-tech crime.

Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) is an independent information security certification governed by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (commonly known as (ISC)²). And CISSP education is a means of educating individuals about how information security works, how to go about making information secure, and how to ensure that it stays that way.

CISSP Education has to do with keeping information secure. When you want to maintain the integrity and private nature of information in the age of the internet, you need people who are trained to do just that. They have to be able to protect your information by creating a system that can defend itself against unauthorized entry from outside sources. This is the essence of CISSP Education.

Imagine the consequences of intercepted credit card numbers, social security numbers, and bank accounts that are openly accessible to anyone with enough knowledge of computer hacking. Without the existence of information security, the results would be disastrous.

Remember, a security guard may be able to protect information that is stored in a warehouse but to protect your network, you need someone with CISSP education. It is a way of policing the network.

For more information on CISSP certification, visit: http://www.isc2.org/cissp/default.aspx

Lot has been talked about cyber crime and ways to prevent it. The rate at which it is growing is enormous. And now with teenagers jumping in this dirty trade, cyber crime is bound to rise at a rapid rate. Till now, only professional hackers used to play this dirty game but now even the 11 year old kids seem to master this trade.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2007 annual report, USA stood first in the list of countries responsible for perpetrating most cyber crimes, followed by Britain. United States accounting for 63.2%, United Kingdom with 15.3% and Canada with 9.78% are the main countries from where cyber crime is penetrating.

But the involvement of increasing number of teenagers in hi-tech crime is a cause of worry. Computer security professionals say many net forums are populated by teenagers swapping credit card numbers, phishing kits and hacking tips. And their poor technical skills make them more vulnerable in getting caught and arrested. Usually it all starts with many teenagers getting into low level crime by looking for exploits and cracks for their favorite computer games. And this is when the big players contact them via communities and forums and ask the innocent kids to swap malicious programs, knowledge and sometimes stolen data.

Such an issue needs to be addressed immediately as the teenagers on being caught can be subjected to punishment whose nature can be mild or severe. And most importantly, the teenagers will be risking their entire future if they are caught.

Online frauds and cyber crimes are causing enormous loss to many businesses. Given below are the links that focus more on the increasing problem in the cyber space.

1. Aviad Ofrat, CEO of Cellebrite discusses about mobile forensics as well as the Universal Forensic Extraction Device. Read more

2. RM3 billion lost to fraud: a loss that reflects the size of the problem for businesses regardless of size. Read more

3. Most UK individuals prefer to report online fraud directly to a dedicated e-crime agency. A thing that surely needs to be learned from the Brits. Read more

Having focused on DNA forensics last week, this week i am presenting links that highlight more on the importance of other methods of forensics and how to make maximum use of forensics in crime investigation.

1. Can a forensics consultant rip off government? Thats what the Punjab government feels while establishing the Forensics Science Agency (FSA). Read more.
2. Data recovery is the process of retrieving computer data that, for any number of reasons, has become inaccessible using normal methods. In such cases some special methods are used to recover the data. Read more to know such methods.
3. Investigating Digital Crime. This is a book written by Robin Phillip Bryant in which he introduces comprehensive ways focusing on how criminals have adapted digital technologies. Rob Harle presents his review on the same. Read more.