How Language Nerds Solve Crimes | Otherwords

"The way you speak can be as unique as a fingerprint... and as useful for investigators in solving crimes!
Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and finds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fields of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human."

Language Leaves A Trail....

#Language #Words #Forensics #Storied #Otherwords #PBS #BreakfastVideo

Books You Should Read: Why Buildings Fall Down

#hackadaycolumns #booksyoushouldread #collapse #failure #failureanalysis #forensics #structuralengineering #hackaday
posted by pod_feeder_v2

Books You Should Read: Why Buildings Fall Down

People with long commutes usually come up with tricks to stay focused and alert and avoid the dangerous tendency to zone out during the drive. One trick I used to use was keeping mental track of th…

"This week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a long-awaited report on the use of bitemark analysis." "The entire specialty of bitemark comparison rests on three core assumptions. The first is that each person's teeth are structured and aligned in a way that causes them to leave unique bite marks. The second is that human skin is capable of recording and preserving those marks in a way that makes them distinguishable. The final assumption is that trained analysts are capable of analyzing marks to include or exclude someone as the person who left them."

"The NIST study found no scientific evidence to support any of these assumptions, and the evidence we do have explicitly refutes two of them."

The writer (Radley Balko) predicts the courts won't care because "typically, the courts' 'scientific' analysis has consisted of little more than listing all of the other courts that have previously found the field to be reliable."

I guess what that shows is that the legal system operates on the principle of "precedence" which is different from the principle of the scientific method that science follows (or at least is supposed to). That's why I decided this is worth sharing. The legal system is inherently non-scientific.

Yet another scientific body has debunked bitemark analysis. The courts still won't care.

#forensics

Yet another scientific body has debunked bitemark analysis. The courts still won't care.

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, the criminal legal system is incapable of admitting its mistakes

Prisoners denied access to forensic evidence in bid to prove their innocence | Law | The Guardian

Campaigners call for reforms to allow those who claim to be wrongly convicted – such as Kevin Nunn, jailed for murdering his ex-girlfriend – to obtain information to appeal

#law #legal #UK #forensics #ForensicScience

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jul/10/prisoners-denied-access-to-forensic-evidence-in-bid-to-prove-their-innocence

A bite mark, a forensic dentist, a murder: how junk science ruins innocent lives | US justice system | The Guardian

Charles McCrory has spent decades in prison for the murder of his wife, convicted on the strength of bite mark evidence. The problem? CSI-style forensics is bad science

It's a truism that the prisons are full of innocent people. Here's one of the reasons.

#law #evidence #judiciary #forensics #ForensicScience

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/28/forensics-bite-mark-junk-science-charles-mccrory-chris-fabricant

Body of evidence: meet the experts working in crime scene forensics | Forensic science | The Guardian

Phone signals, soil samples, tattoo ink, fly larvae… We all know that microscopic traces can play a crucial role in solving crimes. But who are the forensic experts who can read the clues?

An interesting Sunday read.

#law #science #forensics

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/12/body-of-evidence-meet-the-experts-working-in-crime-scene-forensics

Phishing. So easy to counter if you know (your) shit.
But sadly, most people are too ignorant about… simple checks of plausibility and email source http links.

Got an email purportedly from fnac.be. First, plausibility check: I never had any business with Fnac Belgium (I was once (that I remember) in a Fnac in Strasbourg, but that's Fnac France (and I never registered an email with them, AFAICR).
Second, check the email source (it's of course a pure HTML email… which mutt shows the source of anyway), because since it isn't legit, there must be some obvious signs.
Hmm, the From header says "fnac.be" (as a legit Fnac Belgium mail might), but there's a link in the mail to fnac-be.com. Almost looks legit, right? Almost…
Most people would probably be satisfied with this, although most people who check for suspicious links probably wouldn't.
So, a Whois on this domain is in order (natch).
Registrar sounds so not fishy (or is that "phishy"?): Wild West Domains LLC
But much more useful is of course the date of original registration: 2021-11-09. Not even a week ago. Yeah, right, Fnac has their root domain this young. Let's check fnac.be, just to make sure: Oh, registrar is some subsidiary of CSC, CSC Corporate Domains). Something you'd expect. And not Wild West Domains.
Oh, and of course this domain was registered in 1998. Also as expected.

#csc #fnac #fnacbe #phishing #somethingsmellsphishy #forensics #sleuthing #csi ;-)

The new version (1.3) of DFF is out: http://www.digital-forensic.org/
#dff is a Digital #forensics Framework. It is a #Freesoftware. It works on #windows and #gnulinux #linux.
There is bootable edition and a live edition to collect volatile data.