Overview

Eoghan Casey and Keith Seglem

In June 2000, when the home of alleged serial killer John Robinson was searched, five computers were collected as evidence. Robinson used the Internet to find victims and persuade them into meeting him, at which time he allegedly sexually assaulted some and killed others (McClintock 2001). More recently, several hard drives were seized from the home of FBI spy Robert Hanssen. In addition to searching private government computer systems to ensure that he was not under investigation, Hanssen hid and encrypted data on floppy disks that he allegedly passed to the KGB, and used handheld devices to communicate securely with his collaborators as detailed in the following communication that he sent to them.

As you implied and I have said, we do need a better form of secure communication faster. In this vein, I propose (without being attached to it) the following: One of the commercial products currently available is the Palm VII organizer. I have a Palm III, which is actually a fairly capable computer. The VII version comes with wireless internet capability built in. It, can allow the rapid transmission of encrypted messages, which if used on an infrequent basis, could be quite effective in preventing confusions if the existance [sic] of the accounts could be appropriately hidden as well as the existance [sic] of the devices themselves. Such a device might even serve for rapid transmittal of substantial material in digital form. (US vs Hanssen)

As more criminals utilize technology...