E-sleuths foil cyber culprits

In the end, it wasn’t fingerprints, stray fibres or blood spatter patterns that led police to the door of US serial killer Dennis Rader in 2005.

It was a floppy disk.

Police ultimately tracked down the killer who had eluded them for 16 years by analysing the contents of the disk he used to send taunting messages to law enforcement authorities and the local newspaper.

They uncovered obscure digital data embedded in a deleted document on the disk that implicated “Dennis” at the “Christ Lutheran Church”, evidence that contributed to Rader’s arrest and marked the ascendancy of new cyber crime-fighting techniques.

Today nearly every crime, from terrorism and theft of intellectual property to workplace fraud and the download of child porn, has the potential to leave such digital footprints.

Consequently, computer forensics experts are in high demand, and not just for big-C crimes.

Abusive emails, online defamation, plagiarism, fabricated documents, recovery of destroyed information, cyber-bullying and exam cheating are other matters that can come under the digital microscope.

“There is a whole range of little incidents where someone does the wrong thing and the evidence is out there in cyberspace,” explains Leon Sterling, dean of the faculty of information and communication technologies at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. Sterling notes that the uptake of digital services in everyday life has led to a growth in cyber crime. Compounding the problem is a lack of understanding of the legal and ethical issues surrounding computer use.

“Because of the increase in cyber crimes such as computer hacking, fraud and cyber stalking [and] of cyber misconduct that violates company policy, the number of professionals qualified to deal with these issues is inadequate,” he says.

The Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime report released in June after an inquiry by the standing committee on communications also concluded that cyber crime was “highly prevalent and growing at an increasing rate”.

The report notes that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission received 12,000 online scam complaints in the 2007-08 financial year, while the Australian Institute of Criminology said 14 per cent of Australian businesses experienced one or more computer security incidents in the 2006-07 financial year.

But the lack of skilled staff means only the high-profile cases get investigated. There just aren’t sufficient resources to deal with other, smaller incidents.

A postgraduate course in e-forensics being offered by Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne next year aims to address this shortage in expertise, arming professionals with many of the skills needed to tackle cyber crime and misconduct. The graduate certificate in e-forensics will equip students with technical expertise and legal knowledge, enabling them to identify inappropriate online conduct and cyber crime and present data as evidence in legal proceedings.

It joins a small number of similar courses, such as Edith Cowan University’s masters in digital forensics, that cater to law enforcement staff who wish to gain additional skills and to information and communications technology professionals keen for a change in direction.

“After all, chasing crime sounds a lot more interesting than programming,” Sterling says.

There are many levels of involvement in computer forensics including advisory, design, development, investigation, seizure, data mining, data analysis, data preservation, ethics and legal representation.

“The computer e-forensics professional requires a sound knowledge in their operational fields, not only in the technical aspects but also the legal and ethical obligations and rights of the users,” Sterling says.

According to course convener Vivienne Farrell, human resources professionals also may benefit from the course. “Threats are not always external or illegal,” she says. “Among the most common problems employers face are staff members who breach company policy by accessing inappropriate websites or downloading inappropriate material.”

Graduates may find themselves working in a range of different settings.

For example, the Australian Taxation Office recently concluded a recruitment campaign for IT computer forensics officers whose tasks include conducting email and internet investigations.

The Australian Federal Police has a computer forensics team that specialises in obtaining, analysing and presenting electronic evidence stored on computers and other electronic devices.

The Defence Signals Directorate is also conducting ongoing recruitment for technical security specialists and security software developers.

Sterling says the graduate certificate in e-forensics has been developed in consultation with industry advisers who agree that concern for security and infiltration has led to a substantial upturn in the need for legal and technical advice about cyber crime.

“In an industry straining to keep up with demand, there is a real need for a course like this,” he says.

Cyber-security professional
WHERE: Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Canberra
SALARY: $101,519-$122,666
CLOSING: November 25
INQUIRIES: Chris North (08) 7389 6717

Technical security specialists
WHERE: Defence Signals Directorate, Canberra
SALARY: $57,929-$79,555
CLOSING: Ongoing
INQUIRIES: (02) 6265 0472

Security software developers
WHERE: Defence Signals Directorate, Canberra
SALARY: $57,929-$79,555
CLOSING: Ongoing
INQUIRIES: (02) 6265 0472