Cyber Crimebusters: How Internet Forensics Changed Criminal Investigations

Forensics-then-and-now

Cyber Crimebusters
How Internet Forensics Changed Criminal Investigations

The (really) early days of crime solving:
44 BC – Forensics figured out who killed Julius Caesar: his physician determined that among the 23 wounds suffered, only one was fatal.
1248 AD – Murder by sickle solved. Hsi DuanYu (the Washing Away of Wrongs) by Song Ci was the first record of medical knowledge used to solve criminal cases.
1880 – Fingerprints. Englishmen Henry Faulds and William James Herschel describe the uniqueness of fingerprints.
1887 – Coroners by law determine the causes of sudden, violent and unnatural deaths.
First Sherlock Holmes story published.
1923 – L.A. Law: L.A. has 1st police department crime laboratory in U.S.
1984 – First DNA fingerprinting and profiling techniques developed.
…and then came the Internet

Post-Internet Forensics: Solving crime in the 21st Century

Who is using social media to solve crimes?
Federal agents: 81 % of the time they utilize social media to help investigate criminal behavior
State: 71 % of the time
Local police: 82%
Rank and File: 79%
Supervisory: 85%

Featured Schools

….by sections of the country
Northeast police investigators use social media 89% of the time to help solve crimes.
West: 81%
Midwest: 83%
South: 71%

16: number of regional computer forensic labs around the country run by the F.B.I. (2012)
8,566: number of examinations conducted by those RCFLs in 2012
5,986: number of terabytes processed by those RCFLs

What Internet Sites Investigators Use

66.8 %: of the time, cops use Facebook to help solve crimes
29.8%: Nixle
29.8%: Twitter
29.7%: Other text or email based notification
21.6%: My Space
17.6%: You Tube
5.1%: Blog
2.1%: Podcasts
.6%: Flickr

Mobile devices: Can save several types of personal information including:
• Contacts
• Photos
• Calendars
• Notes
• SMS
• MMS
Smartphone can contain:
• Video
• Email
• Web browsing
• Location information
• Social networking messages

Did you know?
35 %: of data breeches caused by lost laptops and mobile devices

The Scary Facts:

5 million: estimated number of predators who surf the internet
75%: of youths who are solicited by predators don’t tell their parents
75%: of those who met their predators, did it more than once
77% of online predators target kids 14 and over
22% between ages 10-13
One in five kids have been sexually solicited online
9 of 10 parents will never know what happened to their child

Why some police jurisdictions don’t use social media to help them solve crimes:
• 12% say it’s their agency policy
• 17% say they don’t have the time to use this technique
• 37% say they can’t access during working hours
• 33% say they don’t have sufficient knowledge to use
• 4% don’t think the information is useful

Top schools offering online computer forensics degrees:

• Stevens-Henager College Online
• Penn Foster School
• Loyola University New Orleans Online
• Walden University Online
• Kaplan University Online

Top traditional schools that offer degrees in computer forensics:

• University of Central Florida
• George Mason
• Kent State
• University of Alabama
• Southern Utah University

Sources:
http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/ripperoo-forensic.html
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-forensic.htm
http://www.berghel.net/col-edit/digital_village/aug-03/dv_8-03.php
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/270216046366064409/
http://www.rcfl.gov
http://www.uknowkids.com
http://www.collegedegreesearch.net/top-computer-forensics-degrees/
http://www.excite.com/education/colleges/computer-forensic-schools
http://www.policeone.com

Related:

Top Online Criminal Justice Degree Programs

Find A Degree