Yesterday, the entire Chatham County Commission visited Armstrong Atlantic State University’s Cyber Forensics Labs, a unit in the campus police department. I too have had the opportunity to tour this unique facility as part of a broader introduction to the university.
On my tour, what struck me, besides the beauty and serenity of the campus, was the fact the police station was included on the tour. What’s up with that? I mean, when you take your kid to consider universities, I hope the police station is the last item on your visitation list.
Well, that’s what I thought before I learned more about careers in Cyber Forensics.
The 2012 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates about a 22 percent increase in demand for information security analysts and computer system analysts throughout the next decade. What percentage of these 120,000 jobs could be located in Savannah? Seeing that the Bureau of Labor Statistics also claims the median salary for computer forensic examiners was around $75,660 in 2012, I hope to see the field burgeon here.
A sea of additional information on cyber forensics is available through the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) http://www.iacis.com or International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE) http://www.isfce.com.
Armstrong’s police department has the largest cyber forensics staff in the state and is the only university and police department in Georgia, if not the nation, working collaboratively to enhance their school’s educational programs. Armstrong police officers work with the university’s criminal justice department at undergraduate and graduate level to provide a track in cyber forensics, run an undergraduate internship and provide a graduate practicum.
One Armstrong police officer teaches the cyber law class in the school’s graduate program. This collaboration is unique in that it involves learning from active real cases rather than just training material.
Armstrong’s police department is also the largest digital forensics lab in the state of Georgia. The size is defined by amount of equipment as well as investigators. The extensive equipment includes five FRED (Forensic Recovery of Evidence Devices), FTK (Forensic Toolkit) software and numerous technologies specific to mobile devices. Nine cyber forensics investigators are employed at the unit. Count that again: Nine full time cyber forensic investigators right here in Savannah.
Credit Armstrong’s police chief, Wayne Willcox, with having the vision to offer his unit’s services to the local law enforcement community as well as those in the entire region. In 2013, Armstrong’s cyber crime forensics unit examined hundreds of computer and mobile devices for federal, state and local criminal justice agencies throughout southeast Georgia. As a result of their willingness to look outside the box, Armstrong University and its police department have decreased evidence processing time for cyber investigations from 12 months to less than 30 days for agencies throughout the state.
That’s a staggering improvement in efficiency and capability.
While Armstrong’s students are not permitted to work on actual case evidence, they do have the opportunity to network with police investigators. Savannah has quietly become the center for digital forensics in Georgia.
Four years ago, Armstrong University’s police department was not involved in the educational process and no other police agencies were asking for help from the Armstrong University Police.
Armstrong University and its police force are not content with standing still. While their collaborative effort has established a name for their police department within the law enforcement community, they are making plans to bring these same skills to the private sector. According to Willcox, the business community can use digital forensics audits to detect fraud and internal theft, thereby preventing the loss of millions, even billions, in revenue every year. Armstrong plans to offer the services of its police officer/digital forensics analysts to the private sector in the near future and is looking into partnerships with private industry that will open up research opportunities for their faculty and students.
So, back to the county commissioners’ visit. Do you think they were touring this cutting edge facility with Savannah’s future in mind or are they worried about how their kids are going to behave in school? Wink Wink.
Bea Wray is the executive director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Bea can be reached at 912-447-8457 or bea@thecreativecoast.org.