Spotting a Cybercriminal

When someone says “cybercriminal” the first image that pops into your mind is probably a teen / young adult male who is a wizard on the computer, but struggles to have a healthy social life.

BUT, this is just a typical stereotype! Our digital forensic experts from TCG Digital Forensics have provided some facts and stats about the average cybercriminal and how to spot them…

       ·         Over half of the world’s internet users have been the victim of cybercrime at least once.

       ·         Every single day more than 105 million people are victims to cybercrime.

Who are these cybercriminals?

Age:

43% – 35+ years old
29% – Under 25 years old
11% – 50+ years old
8% – 14 to 18 years old

Gender:

76% – MALE

Work in Groups:

25% of active cybercriminal groups have been operating for 6 months or less
50% cybercriminals have 6 or more members

Location:

North & South America – 19% of global attack traffic

Europe – 28% of global attack traffic

APAC – More than 49% of global attack traffic

Indonesia – Highest in APAC with 14%

Organised Crime:

       ·         Cybercrime has morphed into fully-fledged businesses with executives, managers and workers

       ·         Underground chat rooms, market places, hired hackers, other illegal information, etc. – all these support the cybercrime businesses

       ·         Invitation-only, help wanted portals specifically for cyber criminals, most originating from Russia.

We can’t stop cyber criminals from attempting their crimes, but we can stop them from getting our identities and precious information online! If you have the feeling that you may be the victim of a cybercrime, do not hesitate to contact us at the TCG Forensic Division on 079 691 0138 or email craig@tcgforensics.co.za

Enhancing Videos for Forensic Purposes - How do we do it?

The objective of Forensic Video Enhancement is to clarify or enhance the events as they occurred. This is done using non destructive techniques to preserve the video evidence integrity, and pixel quality.

At the TCG Forensic Division, the digital forensics experts are often asked to enhance CCTV Surveillance video recordings for court. Often times they are asked to provide video image enhancement as well for identification purposes.

A variety of video enhancement techniques can be applied in different arrangements on CCTV Surveillance video evidence. The most important ingredient to this forensic process is maintaining the highest quality of the video evidence. This provides the highest success possible throughout the investigation.

Did you know that the TCG Forensic Division will now be an Africa exclusive agent for Ikena Forensic Software? Not only does Ikena offer some of the best software programs available today, but full enhancement of your videos and images will always be possible!

- Scaling/Pixel Interpolation: Re-size, or scale an image or video to a larger resolution to further identify suspects.

- Sharpening: Enhances the edge contrast of an image or video.

- Stabilization: This is most common today with smart phone video evidence. It reduces the amount of movement from the user that created the video evidence.

- Frame Averaging: Increase the quality of the image by combining data from surrounding frames as well as a better signal to noise ratio in your images or videos.

- Speed Reduction: Decrease the original playback of video evidence to view the events as they occurred in more detail.

If you have a video that you question or need help understanding, please give us a call on 087 001 0512 or email info@cellularforensics.co.za

Take a look at the Ikena software at work:

http://cellularforensics.co.za/component/allvideoshare/video/01-enhancing-security-camera-video-evidence-of-a-license-plate