ASI masters forensic IT

Box builder ASI Solutions has signed as master distributor for the Logicube range of cybercrime prevention and backup peripherals.

Maree Lowe, director at ASI Solutions, said the US range would likely appeal to a broad and diverse market concerned about data storage and security.

'We're looking at distributing the products into lots of different areas,' said Lowe. 'If you're talking about the cybercrime aspect, security is now a growth area.'

She said Logicube's Forensic SF-5000 handheld devices--designed for quickly capturing disk drive data without interfering with the information--targeted crime prevention, security, financial, defence and insurance verticals.

However, almost any organisation with extensive storage or backup needs could use its OmniClone or Solitaire hard disk file duplication devices, Lowe said.

'OmniClone allows you to set up five, or 10, or 15 drives that download within a minute. It might take you 10 minutes to do that another way. We're using it ourselves, on our PC assembly line.'

The OmniClone and Solitaire devices were also useful for consultants as diagnostic tools, according to Lowe. Consultants could see several different clients more quickly by copying information on faulty drives to the Logicube tool, potentially saving time and money.

'The customer base is potentially any government or corporate organisation with some sort of data file, so it's an open market,' she said.

Lowe said the Logicube range had 'taken off' overseas and was now being introduced into Australia, with ASI working to develop a channel here.

'We've been working on this for six months, [and] will launch it this week and build it up over the next three months,' Lowe said.

Jerry Kanner, US-based vice-president of marketing and sales at Logicube, said the product range--which was previously only available in Australia to customers of one maintenance and services firm--Tech Precision, had few competitors.

'There are similar products that are software, but they are very slow,' he said. 'There is somebody else, a company in the US and one in Taiwan, but the closest competition is [Norton] Ghost.'

Logicube had signed a contract with the FBI to develop the range before the 11 September 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Center, and the forensic products had since been used to help catch one member of Al Quad and to solve the Bali bombing case, Kanner said.

In Bali, Australian Federal Police operatives had used a Logicube Forensic device to crack the Acer laptop of Imam Samurai, who was later convicted as an organiser of the bomb attack--which killed 202 people--using evidence gained using the device, he said.

Kanner said other methods of data copying left users open to accusations of tampering and altering the files. The Logicube device allowed data to be copied without turning the PC on, he added.

Lowe said the Logicube range resulted from a cross-breeding of products that hadn't happened before, and could be used with products from many different vendors.

'It isn't just replication of data. You can start with your standard download, or you can do it bi-directional and start forensics on it. That's the beginning of the functionality. It's got different options,' she said.

Kaner said ASI would begin by stocking the Forensic SF-5000 and SF-5000u forensic data capture systems at RRP US$2195 and US$2249 respectively, the Solitaire Turbo duplication and diagnostic devices at RRP US$1195, the OmniClone 2 and OmniClone 2u duplication and diagnostic devices at US$2195 and US$3695 respectively, and the Echo hard drive duplicator at US$515.