OPINION COLUMN

January 10, 2004

Purdue, law enforcement team up to fight computer crime

By Lonnie Bentley

Technology has generated new mutations in crime –computer-aided terrorism, espionage, bank and business fraud, identity theft, and more. The price tag: $11 billion a year, and rising.

Law enforcement agencies also must collect computer-based evidence from more traditional crimes such as harassment, assault and homicide. This evidence hides where you might not expect it: Criminals leave electronic breadcrumbs on the Internet, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants and even digital cameras.

In response, a new law enforcement field has sprung up called computer forensics, the science of retrieving and analyzing this evidence. The problem is, the nation has a serious shortage in professionals trained in this field while we also need better standardization of procedures and certification processes, not to mention quality tools.

In Indiana, where we have a critical shortage of law enforcement professionals trained in computer forensics, we struggle to handle the volume. And when forensics uncovers evidence, there's always a concern about whether it was collected and stored properly so it will be admissible in court.

At Purdue University, we considered this problem, considered our academic and technical expertise and then committed ourselves to meeting this challenge. First steps already have been taken. The university's School of Technology's Department of Computer Technology has partnered with several agencies, including the Indiana State Police and the National White Collar Crime Center. Purdue students also can specialize in the field.

Those collaborations have already yielded results. In August they led to an intensive three-day training seminar with about 25 police officers from around the state, and in October more than 100 officers learner about e-mail forensics at a second training session. These officers now have more tools to bring to their investigations.

Other schools and departments at Purdue also are collaborating, including the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security – an internationally recognized leader in the field of computer and network security.

This team is working to expand training opportunities, set standards, outline certification processes and evaluate tools. In fact, we've already held workshops attended by 150 law enforcement agents from around the state.

Purdue President Martin C. Jischke has taken an interest and recently visited the Indiana State Police Forensics Computer Lab in Marion, where Purdue faculty are helping to train officers and serving as a conduit to university resources. Purdue has called on other universities to get involved as well. Purdue was host to a computer forensics workshop this summer for educators from universities throughout the country who are developing their own classes.

The FBI estimates that cybercrime costs businesses and the government more than $10 billion a year, with computer-aided identity theft costing an additional $1 billion each year. The FBI also estimates that more than 80 percent of computer crime goes unreported, often because business leaders think law enforcement agencies will lack the resources and know-how to effectively combat it.

As technology improves, those numbers will continue to rise.

Fortunately, Purdue and law enforcement are already at work meeting the challenge.

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