February 26, 2008
The Doha Marriott Hotel was the setting for a day of cyber-crime drama last Thursday, as Q-CERT presented a program on cyber-forensics to delegates from eighteen Arabic countries.
The program was part of a regional meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that was hosted in Doha by ictQATAR and its national information security program, Q-CERT. The topic for the day was cyber-crime investigation and analysis, including a demonstration of how a modern crime scene is more likely to involve a computer or cell phone than a knife or gun.
"The techniques used in cyber-forensics tend to be very technical," said Michael Lewis, Deputy Director of Q-CERT, "so we set up a fake crime scene and walked through the entire investigation, from beginning to end, to demonstrate proper techniques and how the pieces fit together."
The team decided to liven it up by staging a docu-drama with members of the Doha Players, a well-known Doha theatrical group.
"We asked the actors to develop their own characters, with slightly suspicious histories," said Lewis, "and then staged a series of normal business office situations and photographed the scenes. We then used the photos to compose a story, similar to the board game Clue, with a crime scene, a cast of characters, and modern computer tools. Even the actors did not know who would ultimately be guilty of the supposed crime."
The audience was presented with the story to set the context and was then provided with demonstrations of digital forensics techniques such as live memory analysis and digital device imaging and analysis. The program included a presentation on expert witness testimony and a panel on the issue of how best to engage with law enforcement in the event of a cyber-crime.
The day concluded with Ian Dowdeswell, Manager of the Q-CERT Incident Management team, presenting the results of the analysis. In the end, the guilty character was Natasha Gameova, the Russian-born, circus-trained computer scientist, in the office, with her USB memory bracelet.
Special thanks to Mounir Kamal, Cal Waits, and Azrina Othman for their technical presentations, and to Kerry Suek, Sabrina Young, Dima Issa, Ian McKay, and Rachel Marella of the Doha Players.