Google Earth Forensics: Using Google Earth Geo-Location in Digital Forensic Investigations

122 Pages·2014·6.62 MB·English

by  Michael Harrington

Google Earth Forensics
Using Google Earth Geo-Location
in Digital Forensic Investigations
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Google Earth Forensics
Using Google Earth Geo-Location
in Digital Forensic Investigations
Michael Harrington
Michael Cross
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Contents
BIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1 Google Earth Basics ..............................................................1
What is google earth? .......................................................................1
Google earth for forensics ................................................................2
Flavors of google earth .....................................................................4
Installing google earth on your computer ........................................8
CHAPTER 2 Using Google Earth ..............................................................11
The google earth UI ........................................................................11
Navigation .......................................................................................19
Views ...............................................................................................22
Tours ...............................................................................................26
Configuration ..................................................................................28
CHAPTER 3 GPS, GIS, and Google Earth .................................................35
Understanding GPS ........................................................................35
Understanding GIS ..........................................................................42
Geo-location information in pictures .............................................45
CHAPTER 4 KML/XML/HTML ..................................................................49
Markup Languages and Google Earth ............................................49
Using HTML in google earth ...........................................................51
What is KML? ..................................................................................53
XML .................................................................................................56
KML revisited ..................................................................................59
Learning more about markup languages ......................................67
CHAPTER 5 Digital Forensics 101 ...........................................................69
What is digital forensics? ...............................................................69
Tools for recovering evidence .........................................................74
Do you really want to do this? .........................................................77
Organizing your case ......................................................................77
Understanding what you are looking at .........................................80 v
vi Contents
CHAPTER 6 Working a Case ....................................................................83
The practical application of google earth forensics .......................83
Acquiring from a GPS unit ..............................................................85
Annotating a crime scene ...............................................................88
Views and camera angles .............................................................101
Legends, logos, and banners .......................................................103
Creating a tour of the crime scene ...............................................107
Distributing your work in google earth ........................................109
INDEX .....................................................................................................111
Biography
Michael Cross (MCSE, MCP+I, CNA, Network+) is an Internet specialist/
computer forensic analyst with the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS).
He performs computer forensic examinations on computers involved in crim-
inal investigation. He also has consulted and assisted in cases dealing with
computer-related/Internet crimes. In addition to designing and maintaining
the NRPS Web site at www.nrps.com and the NRPS intranet, he has provided
support in the areas of programming, hardware, and network administration.
As part of an information technology team that provides support to a user base
of more than 800 civilian and uniform users, he has a theory that when the us-
ers carry guns, you tend to be more motivated in solving their problems.
Michael also owns KnightWare (www.knightware.ca) that provides computer-
related services such as Web page design, and Bookworms (www.bookworms.ca),
where you can purchase collectibles and other interesting items online. He has
been a freelance writer for several years, and he has been published more than
three dozen times in numerous books and anthologies. He currently resides
in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, with his lovely wife, Jennifer, his darling
daughter, Sara, and charming son, Jason.
Michael Harrington is a former law enforcement officer with over 10 years of
experience in digital forensics. He lectures on mobile forensics around the
world and has been involved in various forensic projects including Pandora’s
Box and WOLF. Michael has been published in the Thomas J Cooley Law Jour-
nal and on Forensic Focus. He also writes on the subject of mobile forensics at
http://mobileforensics.wordpress.com/.
vii
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CHAPTER 1
Google Earth Basics
INFORMATION IN THIS CHAPTER:
j What is Google Earth?
j Google Earth for Forensics
j Flavors of Google Earth
j Installing Google Earth
WHAT IS GOOGLE EARTH?
Google Earth (GE) is a tool that provides you with the ability to view the planet
through a virtual globe, and tunnel down to examine more detailed informa-
tion. Using it, you can navigate through satellite images, aerial photography,
and even views of street level imagery and 3D models of the world. This not
only includes landmasses on Earth, but other locations like oceans, the moon,
Mars, and outer space. Features in Google Earth even allow you to take tours of
locations, or fly across locations using a flight simulator.
Looking at some of these features, you might think that Google Earth is just a nov-
elty or some kind of toy, but that is not the case. By entering in an address or coor-
dinates of a location, GE will display a map that includes the labeled position of
the place you are searching for. You can then zoom in to see 3D structures or actual
photos of a location. As we will see in the chapters that follow, you can also view
areas of the earth using custom maps or overlays, which contain data imported
from GPS units, other devices, or files you have created. The real world, practical
applications for this tool are varied and sometimes amazing.
How Google Earth is Being Used
As a resource, it is often only limited by your resourcefulness. For years, Google
Earth has been used by teachers creating lesson plans involving geography
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Google Earth Forensics
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