[Principled]

you’d think secret service can make some headway... if they choose to?

[taxcontrol]

How do I put this? As an IT security subject matter expert, who holds multiple patents in cryptography, who works for the largest IT consulting and IT product company - I have ZERO confidence on the FBI’s or Secret Service ability to gather evidence from a disk that a decently skilled hacker has decided to “purge”.

Due such skill exist - yes. I'm not disparaging the skills of the agents.

Does the WILL exist to pay for the equipment and time necessary to pursue such a case - no. And that comment is directed at the management and bean counters of the organizations.

This is all based upon my experiences. Other cases may have had better results. The area that I have to give kudo’s to the agents is in NON-technical investigation. The follow the trail grunt work is very good.