Tuesday, Jul 1, 2008    Text size: 

MOBILE, Ala. — Computer crimes expert Gus Dimitrelos’ efforts to crack an encryption code on the computer of an alleged child predator have been thwarted.

According to the Alabama Press Register, federal agents in Mobile sent the computer of convicted pedophile Michael Ryan South to Dimitrelos with instructions to crack its code in order to access files believed to contain child pornography.

Agents sent the computer to Dimitrelos on Jan 2.

To date, more than 9 billion password combinations have been used in an attempt to crack South’s password without success.

Dimitrelos heads the Alabama digital evidence department and founded Alabama's High-Technology Crimes Task Force which works with current Secret Service agents on cases involving homicide, student hackers, and arson. He runs his own digital forensics company called WhoHackedMe.com and has done forensics work for Perverted-Justice.com, the organization that assisted Dateline’s "To Catch a Predator" TV series in busting adults searching for minors online.

Dimtrelos said he wouldn’t give up his attempts to crack the code because the files could contain evidence about molestation of which investigators are unaware.

"We're going to decrypt it," Dimitrelos told the Alabama Press Register. "I just have to wait. There's nothing else I can do. It could be years. We could be having the same conversation three years from now."

Dimitrelos used a forensics software program known as Password Recovery Toolkit by Access in his attempt to open South’s encrypted files.

The software program is able to run through different groups of possible passwords at a rate as fast as 250,000 a second. The program will run through all known dictionaries, cookbooks, technical manuals and other documents searching to find the combination of letters that might open the lock. If that fails, it will begin searching custom-made lists derived from South's interests, dates that have meaning to him and other personal data. As a last resort, the program can start searching through random combinations of letters, numbers and special characters.

Dimitrelos told the newspaper that the results of the investigation were especially alarming given the fact that South was not particularly adept at computer skills.

“The program that [South] used to encrypt his files is readily available for free on the Internet,” Dimitrelos said. “What he's doing is researching the data. He's not advanced. The tools are advanced."

Last month, prosecutors convicted South of traveling across state lines to try to have sex with a child. Due to a prior sex offense on his record, he faces an automatic life sentence for his latest conviction.