Computer disk drives from WTC could yield clues
December 20, 2001 Posted: 8:17 a.m. EST (1317 GMT)
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry...harddrives.idg/(IDG) -- A new data-recovery technique could help trace suspicious financial transactions made shortly before the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on September 11.
An unexplained surge in transactions was recorded prior to the attacks, leading to speculation that someone might have profited from previous knowledge of the terrorist plot by moving sums of money. But because the facilities of many financial companies processing the transactions were housed in New York's World Trade Center, destroyed in the blasts, it has until now been impossible to verify that suspicion.
That's where Convar Systeme Deutschland GmbH comes in. The company is helping reconstruct data from hard disk drives found in the ruins of the twin towers. While other data-recovery companies are also involved in the effort, the company says it has a special edge: a laser-based scanning technology developed about two years ago.
Using the technology, "It's possible to read the individual drive surfaces, and then create a virtual drive," said Peter Wagner, a spokesman for the company, a subsidiary of U.K.-based Convar Europe Ltd. "Our competitors mostly work with (magnetic) heads, which is a very tedious process, but also risky."
Because of the fine dust created by the explosions that destroyed the towers, which was driven at high pressure into devices, physically touching the drive surfaces can damage them, he said.
"Laser scanning is a good deal quicker, has a higher success rate, and is also cheaper," he added. Companies contracting with Convar pay between US$20,000 and $30,000 per drive for the work.
When Convar discovers encryption keys on a drive, indicating a financial record, it saves the information and hands it over to its U.S. clients, who are in turn cooperating with the FBI, he said.
The company has completed processing 39 drives; another 42 have arrived, and a further 20 drives are expected in early January, Wagner said.
Convar's German facility, in the town of Pirmasens near the NATO air base Ramstein, is one of the few civilian data recovery centers to be certified for military purposes as a "high security zone," the company said.
Rick Perera is a correspondent for the IDG News Service.
Following the Sept. 11 money trail
Tower computers scoured for clues to cash transfers
Erik Kirschbaum
12/18/2001
The Toronto Star
Ontario
Page A08
Copyright © 2001 The Toronto Star
German computer experts are working around the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center Sept. 11.
Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the center shortly before the planes hit the twin towers? Or was it coincidence that unusually large sums of money, perhaps more than $100 million, were rushed through the computers as the disaster unfolded?
A world leader in retrieving data, German -based firm Convar, is trying to answer those questions and help credit card companies, telecommunications firms and accountants in New York recover records from computer hard drives that have been partially damaged by fire, water or fine dust.
Using a pioneering laser scanning technology to find data on damaged computer hard drives and main frames found in the rubble of the World Trade Center and other nearby collapsed buildings, Convar has recovered information from 32 computers that support assumptions of dirty doomsday dealings.
"The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and authorizations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start," said Convar director Peter Henschel.
"Of course it is also possible that there were perfectly legitimate reasons for the unusual rise in business volume," he told Reuters in an interview. "It could turn out that Americans went on an absolute shopping binge on that Tuesday morning. But at this point there are many transactions that cannot be accounted for," he said.
Inside Convar's ultra-high security building in Pirmasens, Germany, is a dust-free "clean room" where damaged computer drives retrieved from the rubble are coaxed back to life.
Henschel said the raw material recovered, up to 40 gigabytes per computer hard drive, is sent immediately by satellite or courier back to New York.
Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert at the company, said illegal transfers of more than $100 million might have been made immediately before and during the disaster.
"There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million," Wagner said. "They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the main frames were destroyed."
"We have been quite surprised that so many of the hard drives were in good enough shape to retrieve the data," Henschel said. "The contamination rate is high. The fine dust that was everywhere in the area got pressed under high pressure into the drives. But we've still been able to retrieve 100 percent of the data on most of the drives we've received.
Credit: REUTERS NEWS AGENCY; REUTERS FILE PHOTO