Continuation Part 5: Discussion of the Amanda Knox/Raffaele Sollecito case

[Dan O.]

Cool point. Maybe Raf wrote it on his battery or in a manga comic. Now a password for a computer doesn't seem super important so maybe it is sooooo common that people use the maiden name with some other name that they could guess but it seems far fetched.

How do you think they knew the password?

http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubb...01/22/sollecito-in-aula-ecco-la-password.html

 

[Dan O.]

.
I am still considering it. Was this Raffaele's own computer, or his Carabinieri sister 's computer?
.

The hard drive on the sisters computer never recovered. Here, the password is revealed: http://www.fondazioneitaliani.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2996&Itemid=53

 

[acbytesla]

Cracking Windows Passwords is not that hard, just Google "cracking XP" IT admins often do this kind of thing.


That being said, I think i read they just guessed it. You can also get a list of the most commonly used passwords. You'd be surprised at how many people use simple passwords such as 123..

 

[Grinder]

.
I am still considering it. Was this Raffaele's own computer, or his Carabinieri sister 's computer?
.

Hey did you used post at Frank's with a signature pattern of dots?

I think it was his.

 

[codyjuneau]

In September, Raffaele Sollecito's defense lawyers revealed Perugia police had "lost" 29 wiretapped phone calls, many between Amanda Knox and Sollecito. All the calls were made in the two days following
Meredith Kercher's murder. Perugia court-watcher Frank Sfarzo wonders if the 29 calls were "lost" as a result of an accident or something more sinister. Sfarzo wrote in his Perugia Shock blog, "Were they (Knox and
Sollecito) saying something that was proving that they didn't have anything to do with the crime

.
The police lost 29 bugged phone calls. I would assume the bugging is delegated to the local Central Office, which would be programmed to automatically digitally record any calls to/from the designated phone numbers. Presumably the Central Office also does regularly scheduled archiving of these files, probably on a daily basis. So I am wondering how 29 phone calls can be lost? I am also wondering how it was determined that they were lost? Also, were they a block of consecutive phone calls, or individual randomly spaced phone calls?

.

 

[Grinder]

http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubb...01/22/sollecito-in-aula-ecco-la-password.html

this is what your link said for me:

Here is the password reminder in the classroom
PERUGIA - It is presented in the classroom only to provide some clarification on his laptop and password, his lawyer appeared "scared." Raffaele Sollecito was the 'only one of the accused yesterday in the Palace of Justice where he was held on' hearing for the conferment of 'task to the experts who are to perform tests on laptops belonging to Raffaele, Amanda Knox and the poor Meredith Kercher, the English girl killed . Now the hard disk will be cloned and analyzed.


Cody's point is that the police were on his computer while he was in the station on the 5th if I understand correctly.

 

[Grinder]

Cracking Windows Passwords is not that hard, just Google "cracking XP" IT admins often do this kind of thing.


That being said, I think i read they just guessed it. You can also get a list of the most commonly used passwords. You'd be surprised at how many people use simple passwords such as 123..

But he used the last names of his father and maiden name of his mother or some such thing.

 

[acbytesla]

But he used the last names of his father and maiden name of his mother or some such thing.

I have no idea how they got into the computer, I'm just saying if the Computer is XP it's not that hard. I've done it. I haven't checked, is this a Windows machine or an Apple? I have virtually no expertise with Apple.

 

[Dan O.]

The password provided to the judge was for the other computer that Raffaele had not used since July. Google the password itself "Akirofuga" for many more articles.

The heading of one article mentions "factory-set password". This makes little sense as Raffaele's computer was a MacBook Pro and the factory (Apple Computer) does not set a default password. In fact, by default, there is no password. The computer can also be set to automatically log in upon startup and it takes deliberate action to set a screensaver lock. The computer was already running as it was being used for P2P file sharing so it is possible that no password was required to access it.

If you don't store anything secret on your computer, the is no need to hastle yourself with passwords. If Raffaele had anything to hide, the ILE would have found it.

 

[codyjuneau]

Hey did you used post at Frank's with a signature pattern of dots? .

.
No
.

 

[acbytesla]

The password provided to the judge was for the other computer that Raffaele had not used since July. Google the password itself "Akirofuga" for many more articles.

The heading of one article mentions "factory-set password". This makes little sense as Raffaele's computer was a MacBook Pro and the factory (Apple Computer) does not set a default password. In fact, by default, there is no password. The computer can also be set to automatically log in upon startup and it takes deliberate action to set a screensaver lock. The computer was already running as it was being used for P2P file sharing so it is possible that no password was required to access it.

If you don't store anything secret on your computer, the is no need to hastle yourself with passwords. If Raffaele had anything to hide, the ILE would have found it.

Thanks for filling us in Dan. This has never been a big question mark for me.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

the luminol-positive prints

I guess I'm left with this question, Is there blood on this shoe print? Or could it be the result of all the people that were in the hall the next day? The Postal Police, the boys downstairs, etc, etc, etc.

There is a luminol-positive substance that made the print, and that is all one should say. In one sense, it does not matter whether or not it was blood: If that print was left innocently (not as part of the crime), then why should anyone conclude that the others were not left innocently? Putting it another way, suppose that it were made (possibly in blood) and that the postal police created it when they arrived the next day. Then what makes any other print different?

 

[Dan O.]

Thanks for filling us in Dan. This has never been a big question mark for me.

For me, this is the first time I ran across that password. The discovery that it is a key through Google to many new sources on the case is exciting. I feel like the little bird has gotten me past the snake.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

a bit more on the Hamkin DNA case

See the link here for more on a mistaken DNA match of some kind or another. There is not much on what exactly went wrong, but these DNA cold hits are problematic IMO.
EDT
The problem may be the use of partial profiles, which are not as discriminating as full profiles. See also this comment.

 

[Supernaut]

Unless of course, someone saw you hiding it, or it was caught on camera, or you told someone you trusted and they betrayed that trust. You never know for sure.

Nutcase. Or paid shill.

 

[acbytesla]

See the link here for more on a mistaken DNA match of some kind or another. There is not much on what exactly went wrong, but these DNA cold hits are problematic IMO.

I read about this case on IIP the other day, they linked another article to it. Thanks for this link.

 

[acbytesla]

There is a luminol-positive substance that made the print, and that is all one should say. In one sense, it does not matter whether or not it was blood: If that print was left innocently (not as part of the crime), then why should anyone conclude that the others were not left innocently? Putting it another way, suppose that it were made (possibly in blood) and that the postal police created it when they arrived the next day. Then what makes any other print different?

Excellent analysis. But does that matter in Italy??

 

[Chris_Halkides]

partial profiles and cold hits

I read about this case on IIP the other day, they linked another article to it. Thanks for this link.

I added two more links to my comment. Do you have the one at IIP handy? I am pretty sure it was a case of a cold-hit, partial profile, which I have long thought to be a drawback to large databases.

 

[Grinder]

There is a luminol-positive substance that made the print, and that is all one should say. In one sense, it does not matter whether or not it was blood: If that print was left innocently (not as part of the crime), then why should anyone conclude that the others were not left innocently? Putting it another way, suppose that it were made (possibly in blood) and that the postal police created it when they arrived the next day. Then what makes any other print different?

Chris though I mostly defer to you on DNA and luminol, I believe you are not looking at the possibility that it was long ago prints made in extremely diluted blood. The luminol test being much more sensitive than TMB would show such diluted blood but the TMB wouldn't.

The article I quote a time back made the point that blood doesn't go away unless scrubbed with something strong like a detergent. It is possible that someone a year before or longer had something bleeding a bit in the shower and walked bare footed afterwards. The spots can't be dated and don't seem IIRC to fit any pattern that makes sense vis-a-vis the murder.

Did all the prints test positive for Meredith's DNA?

 

[acbytesla]

I added two more links to my comment. Do you have the one at IIP handy? I am pretty sure it was a case of a cold-hit, partial profile, which I have long thought to be a drawback to large databases.

I'm looking..but it's like look for a needle in a haystack since I didn't save the article. I'm trying to think of good search terms to find it. This one by one looking through IIP isn't working.

OK..I didn't find the article...but.. I just Googled Peter Hamkin" instead and there are lots of hits for this story including this fairly detailed story of this event titled An Imprecise Science.. http://cbanational.rogers.dgtlpub.com/2011/2011-03-31/pdf/An_imprecise_science.pdf