Forensic Analysis, it's not just for catching killers anymore!

This post goes out to all the people who are incessant about cheating because they feel deep down in their hearts that they will never be caught. If you are one of those people, you may want to grab a smoke and a coke, then come back, kick your shoes off and relax for a while while you read this. If you know one of these people (we run into them in nearly every certification forum on the internet) then pass this link on to them. And, well, if you're not one of them, you may want to learn a bit, so enjoy!

Now, since I know there are quite a few people that still can't seem to grasp the concept of Forensic Analysis and yet others firmly believe forensics are only used to catch killers (murderers), I thought I would post some more information on the topic so that everyone involved in the certification or testing procedures would better understand just how they can get caught by using braindumps.

Before I do get into the meat of the topic, I would like to point out that all the information I'm presenting here is public knowledge and could easily be found with a few google searches.

Something else that cheaters (primarily those that make a habit of cheating) should know is that no matter what you do, or try to do, to circumvent the system, you're going to get caught eventually. The reason: Data Forensics find anomalies in behavior. And no matter how you TRY to behave while taking your exam, you're merely creating another abmormality that can still be measured. So trying to take the information presented below and using it to your advantage probably won't work.

Are these "scare tactics" to keep people from cheating? Hell Yes! But it doesn't mean that the methods aren't being used. They are infact being used, and they are continuously being improved upon.

One method Certification Vendors employ to catch braindumpers is planting specific questions in their exams. These quetions are generally questions that have already been exposed to the public via one or more of the 1000+ braindump sites so they are known by individuals that have previously cheated and once were once correct.

Here is an example that was presented by Dennis Maynes of Caveon in his blog on March 2, 2008 which covers the Trojan method of seeding exams. Please, take a few minutes to read that, it is extremely interesting.

Here is another interesting blog from Dennis on the probability of tests with identical answers. Here's what is so ineresting about this. Braindumps are questions and answers that have been taken from the actual exams, and certification Vendors seed the exams (as shown in the first link), so wouldn't it be pretty obvious to the certification vendors if you have correctly (or incorrectly, you choose) answered the same exact questions that they've seeded?

I'll leave you with this question (and the link to the answer): Can you prove cheating on tests using statistics?