Internet Forensics uses the combination of advanced computing techniques and human intuition to uncover clues about people and computers involved in Internet crime, most notably fraud and identity theft.

Craic has a particular interest in this aspect of computer security and undertakes research and education in the field.

Internet Forensics - The Book

Internet Forensics by Robert Jones was published by O'Reilly Media in 2005. This introductory computer security book describes a wide range of techniques for tracking down the sites and servers behind phishing scams, spam and other forms of Internet fraud.   Read Chapter 4 (Obfuscation) for free at oreilly.com   Buy the Book from amazon.com   Download Code Examples from the Book

Dynamic DNS and Location Tracking

Dynamic DNS allows a static hostname to be associated with residential or mobile computers that are assigned dynamic IP address by their ISPs.

However, this convenience comes with a potential risk to privacy in that one can easily monitor the IP address assigned to any given FQDN using basic DNS lookup tools. It is possible to track changes in the IP addresses used by a mobile user over time and, in many cases, infer the approximate geographical location of that user.

While there are legitimate uses for such monitoring, it can also represent a significant risk to the privacy of certain users. This risk is largely unrecognized by users of Dynamic DNS services. The issues are described in the following Technical Report.

Dynamic DNS and Location Tracking - Risks and Benefits (Craic Tech Report 2006-1)

An Analysis of Abusive Usenet Postings

The results of the analysis and the back story to this project are described here.