A
NETWORK WHOSE TIME HAS COME
Nation's Sixth Cyber Lab Opened in Silicon Valley
02/14/05
Recovering key
bits of evidence from a computer severely damaged by fire. Defeating
passwords on four zip disks full of kiddie porn. Extracting clues from
over 40 computers and hundreds of storage disks from the 9/11 investigation.
Tracing an e-mail sent by a kidnapped teenage girl, leading to her
safe recovery within minutes.
These are just a few
successes of our growing national network of high tech crime labs.
We call them
Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories, or RCFLs. Their
specialty? The cyber equivalent of dusting for fingerprints: finding
evidence of criminal and terrorist activity on PCs, laptops, cell phones,
digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, DVD recorders, and other electronic
devices. Evidence that generates leads, solves cases, and helps establish
guilt or innocence in a court of law.
The concept
was born in the 1990s, with the spike in criminal cases involving
digital evidence. "Why don't we pool our expertise and establish
regional labs that can handle everyone's needs for cyber forensics?" we
in law enforcement asked ourselves. Congress helped supply the funds,
and the first RCFL was launched in 1999.
Today, six
RCFLs serve 350 counties in seven states, including all of New Jersey
and Kansas. And that's just the beginning. This year, we'll
more than double the current number. By year's end, more than 1,000
law enforcement agencies in 15 states will be able to take advantage
of these lab services.
First up in
2005: the Silicon Valley RCFL, opened on January 7 in Menlo
Park, California. A few details:
- The facility: More
than 17,000 square feet of space, featuring state-of-the-art computers,
an evidence storage room the size of a basketball court, and a high
tech classroom that can train up to 1,000 officers and detectives a
year.
- Services
offered: Collecting
digital evidence at crime scenes, conducting impartial exams, and
providing court testimony for law enforcement in Alameda, San Mateo,
San Francisco, and Santa Clara Counties; the lab also helps out others
in northern California on a case-by-case basis.
- Participating
agencies: The
Alameda County Sheriff's Office; the Palo Alto Police Department;
the San Jose Police Department; the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office;
the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office; and the FBI.
- Current
staff: Supervisory
Special Agent Chris Beeson, the director of the center; eight highly
trained forensic examiners; and a lab assistant.
The bottom
line, according to San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis: "[W]e're
going to take a gigabyte out of crime."
For more information: The
Silicon Valley RCFL website | The
National RCFL website | RCFL
locations
