New US Computer Forensic Institute

Quincy writes "The DHS and Secret Service are setting up a new computer forensic institute in Alabama. Set to open in mid-2008, the new National Computer Forensic Institute will be able to train over 900 law enforcement officers per year. 'It will initially be staffed by 18 Secret Service agents and will feature classrooms, a forensic laboratory, an evidence vault, and server rooms. Courses will be offered in the investigation of electronic crimes, network intrusion investigation, and computer forensics... [T]he Secret Service says that it will help to bring judges and prosecutors up to speed as well.'" Maybe over time we'll see fewer botches of justice like those in the news recently.

I wonder.

Do you HAVE to be a law officer, or can anyone sign up?

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A friend of mine got a job with the FBI as a network technician. He carries a badge and gun with his networking gear. I guess the gun is needed for those rare occasions when troubleshooting gets out of hand.

Re:I wonder.

My hope is that more computer science majors go into law enforcement.

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Keep hoping. The fact is, most people who sign up to be cops, don't want to do the kind of learning that is require (not disparageing and this comes with all the caveats of any generalization). Its just not their bag...

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A bachelor's degree is a requirement to join the force in many major cities.

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Instead of the trend recently of more law enforcement happening in our computers?

Re:I wonder.

"Oh officer, you're going to arrest me? Please, just take a look in this box first..."

Officer, sweating, gulping, "Is that what I think it is?"

"That's right, and if this crate of mint condition, first edition gold-embossed Call of Cthulu sets were to disappear, I'm sure no one would mind too much, as these things tend to happen..."

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I'd rather fight to protect people FROM law enforcement, considering their track record of late.

No

You do not have to be a cop. Any employee of the Ministry of Truth will be allowed.

Probably Feds Only

Do you HAVE to be a law officer, or can anyone sign up?

I strongly suspect that you'll have to be a civil servant to go and train, but probably not an official law enforcement officer (LEO).

The federal government currently does this kind of training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) [fletc.gov] in Gly

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I was NOT a sworn LEO (i.e. couldn't take oaths, arrest people, or serve subpoenas)

You can make a citizen's arrest if you witness a misdemeanor or have reason to believe that someone has committed a felony.

So, they have computers in Alabama now?

Queue the banjo music.

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I think you mean "cue"

I can't believe anyone would label the parent post "insightful". I'm thinking more along the lines of "troll" or "offtopic".

As others have mentioned, NASA is in the state... not to mention Honda and soon to be Hyndai.

Re:So, they have computers in Alabama now?

We also have Huntsville, where all of our nice NASA research goes on.

On advanced technologies for converting between feet and meters, no doubt.

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No, that was JPL... california.

Sounds like a near-impossible task

Figuring out what happened in a computer system months after the fact is not easy. Most programmers have more than enough trouble figuring out what exactly happened in their own programs thirty seconds ago.

Still -- not to say it's a bad idea. You have to start somewhere...

More of the same

The Secret Service has tried to produce aids like their "Best practices for seizing electronic evidence", and the National Institute of Justice has published its guide to "Digital Evidence in the Courtroom", but the need for more advanced training has been obvious in numerous recent cases

This will consist mostly of practicing the correct SOP for the using the forklift to cart out every single piece of computer equipment on the site. I sincerely doubt that they'll be teaching any discretionary tactics or give up their current practice of confiscating everything in sight.

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Here's a question I've been wondering: What happens to your computer in each of the following cases?

1) Siezed as evidence, found innocent of charges
2) Siezed as evidence, found guilty of charges
3) Siezed as evidence, found innocent of sex-related char

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I mean, it's not a box of pot. They can't easily take the pot out and return the box to you.

You wouldn't get the box back anyway if they found illegal marijuana in it. The box would be evidence. You'd be unable to claim it after conviction because you'd b

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It sounds like they'll be teaching what to do with a hard disk image, which goes beyond just "use EnCase".

Besides, you have to seize everything unless you've got some guarantee that there's no evidence concealed on a nerdstick, an iPod, or any of a kajilli

Huh?

FTFS: " Set to open in mid-2008, the new National Computer Forensic Institute will be able to train over 900 law enforcement officers per year. 'It will initially be staffed by 18 Secret Service agents and will feature classrooms, a forensic laboratory, an

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Not to worry - this is brought to you by the Department of Homeland Security, whose charter is "spend all our budget on grants, ask for more next year", and whose primary product is press releases. Nothing to see here, move along.

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Theoretically the intervening time between then and now will be taken up designing a robust, in-depth curriculum and accompanying infrastructure that allows for the sort of flexibility needed to fight a "war" on the IT front. ...but why the Secret Service?

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but why the Secret Service? This may just show my woefully inadequate knowledge of the US Government... I was under the impression that the primary duties of the Secret Service was the protection of high-ranking US officials and the prevention of counterfe

Secret Service, and being up to date

You're exactly right about the Secret Service. Keep going with that list. What is "currency" these days? Almost all the dollars in the world are computer records. Their anti-counterfeiting mission put them in the lead to deal with computer crime.

Computer f

haha..no

COputer will not change that much in a year.
How much ahve they changed in the last year? in the last 3? not much, and a faster processor doesn't matter here.

Of course, that's not the real issue, the real issue is determining how people use their computers.

They need two separate education tracks

Police investigators need much more than the theory, they need indepth coverage of the practices. Prosecutors and judges need more of the theory, the pros and cons, etc. A prosecutor doesn't need to know how to hunt down a trojan horse, but should be able to look at a police report and for the most part completely grok the methods the police used as a knowledgeable reader. Same with the judge.

The other side

The Secret Service says that it will help to bring judges and prosecutors up to speed as well.'"

What about defense attorneys?

You don't need one.

If you are innocent, you will not be convicted. Asking for a defense lawyer is an indication of guilt.

Re:The other side

Damn good point.

But since the prosecutorial state is interested in prosecuting and sentencing as many people as possible for as long as possible, they have no incentive to actually DEFEND people... I guarantee the tone of these classes is "how to get more convictions".... where it should be "how to better determine the truth".

"How can we make an airtight case against the 15 year old who made a porno of his girlfriend?"

mmmmhmmm

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I just googled this "webe web" case. I find it hilarious that the whole controversy is framed by a bill introduced by Mark Foley.

He's somehow special because he *chats* with the boys instead of looking at pictures of them. heh

In all seriousness, he was

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Good point. As a practical matter, this training will probably (hopefully) be available to anyone interested, particularly lawyers on both sides. Maybe the statement about prosecuting attorneys and judges was made just to show the public that the program

People have no idea how to *really* erase a file

Microsoft must be the biggest supporter of computer forensic investigators.

Even since DOS 1.0, Microsoft operating systems never really erase a file. Now, they use cache, temp files, and the recycling bin to make lots of copies too. And that's only on the unerased portion of the hard drive. Chances are there are more copies on the erased data sectors.

Most users who really want to erase a file from the file system have to erase about two or three copies (if they know where the copies are). Wiping a file only zaps the original, not the copies.

Those investigators have it too easy.

My wiping program is made by Craftsman Tools (claw or ball-peen configuration)

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My wiping program is made by Craftsman Tools (claw or ball-peen configuration)

So violent! A powerful electromagnet should make any data recovered from the HDD suspect at best, and most likely non-existant. The electomagnet has the advantage of requiring only a single switch, and it can be flicked remotely.

Re:People have no idea how to *really* erase a fil

And then the name of the file is in several places in the registry, and linked to from the \Recent directory.

I've told clients that using Windows is like being stalked by paparazzi.

Why would they?

Really erasing a file takes a long time. The computer doesn't really erase memory either when it's freed up it just marks the space as free, it doesn't zero it (does on allocation though). There's no good reason to have an erase by default option, and many

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"most people don't want to wipe their data out..."

Are you aware that paper shredders are very common in a business setting. For the same reason, business users, very much do want to wipe their data out. Forever - with no copies or hidden backups.

I can ci

meager offerings

'It will initially be staffed by 18 Secret Service agents and will feature classrooms, a forensic laboratory, an evidence vault, and server rooms.

No water slide? Those republicans sure know how to "starve the beast"...

Alabama?

Computer forensics, and Alabama??

Am I the only one here who got a laugh out of this?

Redneck #1: (pokes computer with a stick) "dang, can't say ah evah seen one of dem der thangs b'for"

Reneck #2: (spits out chewing tobacco) "Well, ah dunno wut dat der

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No, based on the other comments, you are not the only prejudiced person here.

law enforcement "bringing judges up to speed"....

quoth the grunt "me have baaad feeling about this".

isnt it always these people who are supporting the RIAA/MPAA/BSA/etc in open memos to congress and various other bodies.

I'd rather we "bring judges up to speed" by sending them to their local state u for a

Typical law enforcement mentality

if (this_player()->query("made a mistake"))
{
if (criminal(this_player()))
this_player()->retribution();
if (oneofus(this_player()))
this_player()->rehabilitation();
}

Super Computers?

But will this computers have the ubiquitous CSI "Picture Enhance" feature?

Zoolander, anyone?

"There must be an on button somewhere? Did you press the apple thing?"

...

"Did you find the files?"
"I don't even know what they loo-- What do they look like?"
"They're in the computer."
"They're in the computer?"
"Yeah, they're definitely in there. I don't know how he labled them."
"I got it."
"You gotta figure it out. We're running out of time. You gotta find them and meet me at the show."
"Roger. In the computer. It's so simple."

...

"We got 30 years of files right here in this computer that are gonna bring you down!"
"Oh, no."
"Down! (He smashes the computer) Where did all the files go?"

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different people get mod points. /. is not one big group think, and it never has been.

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I think it should have been "-1 Troll".

troll

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Subtlety improves the quality of humor. So, yes, yours is more troll than funny.

Besides, banjo music is pretty funny in its own right.

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This really annoys me. You hear about a few bad cops in the news and suddenly the majority of police officers know absolutely nothing about civil liberties, right to privacy or any other constitutional or legal rights.

My dad is a retired cop who now tea

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So something that happened 15 years ago makes you claim that all cops NOW are ignorant?

I said there are always a few bad cops, but to say the majority are clueless really irks me. We aren't living in the times of Andy Griffith, most cops have college de

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It comes down to social priorities.

If someone wanks to something that disgusts other people, they better damn well watch out because politicians and prosecutors make a living prosecuting you. Most of you are average middle class sorts and don't stand a sn