Taking a Byte
out of Crime

By Charles Sizemore ’08
Illustrated by Ginny Joyner

A new center at Champlain College breaks virtual ground -- and forges real-world partnerships -- in the field of digital forensic investigation

Whether one is a champion or a critic of digital technology’s migration into virtually every arena of our lives -- from personal computers to cellular phones to common household appliances -- some low-level anxiety about technology’s darker side is probably common among citizens of the wired world.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that, as crime finds new and innovative uses for digital technology, so does crime stopping. Digital evidence is real evidence, and although it may not end up being “smoking gun”–level evidence as frequently as other types, it is increasingly the type of evidence that keeps an investigation moving forward. And nowhere is the field that works with digital evidence -- digital forensic investigation -- advancing more rapidly than at Champlain College.

Thanks to a recent federal grant, the College’s Computer & Digital Forensics program is now the foundation of a regional center for digital investigation. That’s a boon to students interested in law enforcement careers, the agencies that will employ them, and communities and citizens everywhere touched by digital crime.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Five years ago, Champlain College didn’t offer a computer forensics class. Today, the College offers not only classes in digital forensics but also a Computer & Digital Forensics major -- quite likely the College’s fastest-growing program. The newest evidence of this growth emerged on December 28, 2006, when Champlain College President David Finney held a news conference on campus announcing the creation of the Champlain College Center for Digital Investigation (C3DI). The conference was attended by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), then the assumptive chair of the influential Senate Judiciary Committee -- a policymaker of national prominence in matters of criminal justice. Leahy had recently helped secure the funding for the Center: a $650,000 grant from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Also in attendance were C3DI Director Gary Kessler; Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell; U.S. Attorney Tom Anderson; Burlington Police Chief Thomas Tremblay; and Deputy Chief Mike Schirling, who also serves as the coordinator of the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children and Internet Crimes task forces.

Champlain President David Finney announces the new center on December 28, 2006; also pictured are (from left) Vermont State Police Lieutenant Tom Nelson, professor Gary Kessler, Burlington Police Chief Thomas Tremblay, and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy.

The Center represents a unique partnership between Champlain College and the law enforcement community. The strength of the collaboration draws, in part, from two new Champlain faculty members, Lisa Kara and Melodie Woodward ’06 (see “Champlain’s Dynamic Digital Duo” on page 13), who split their time between teaching at Champlain and working with a range of law enforcement agencies involved in digital investigations at the Burlington Police Department (BPD).

“Local, state, and federal law enforcement officials have seen an explosion of complex electronic crimes,” Leahy said at the news conference. “In a time when computers hold the key to everything from terrorist plots to accounting scandals, understanding … digital forensics is crucial for today’s federal, state, and local law enforcement officers.” Leahy also praised the C3DI’s collaborative framework as being well matched to the complex realities of law enforcement in a high-tech world: “The digital forensics education curriculum that Champlain College has put together is right on point in helping law enforcement professionals succeed in countering cyber-criminals,” he added. “This grant will help the College expand its outreach to the public sector, building a rare and important partnership between academia and law enforcement.”

Naturally, the College’s contribution to this collaboration will leverage some of Champlain’s most valuable assets -- learning technology in particular. One priority for C3DI is to work with the Vermont Police Academy (VPA) to move some of the VPA’s officer-training courses online, as well as with two private companies to make other online digital forensics training courses available to law enforcement officers across the country.

DREAMING IN DIGITAL

The inspiration to develop C3DI struck roughly five years ago. Kessler, then program director for the Computer Networking program at Champlain, Mike Schirling -- whom Kessler met in 1986 when both were on the Colchester Rescue Squad -- and William Sheets (at the time a Vermont State Police lieutenant) wrote a paper for then-U.S. Attorney Peter Hall about computer forensics and its possible impact on cyber-terrorism, information warfare, criminal intelligence, counterintelligence, and criminal investigations. The paper was wide in scope. Kessler remembers that “the specific focus was for the U.S. attorney, because of some of the antiterrorism activities that were going on through his office in the aftermath of 9/11, and we were basically making the case that if computer forensics were brought into one central location, with lots of different constituencies working together … there could be significant benefit.”

Kessler, Schirling, and Sheets envisioned a centrally located facility to house computer forensics and intelligence. Although the ideas they presented in the paper were well received by the law enforcement and antiterrorism community, funding such an operation remained an open question. Initial attempts at funding failed to bear satisfactory results.

Then, in late 2005, Kessler was contacted by Leahy’s office with news that the senator had secured funding for a “computer forensics center.” Kessler was thrilled with this unexpected news and is excited by the support that C3DI has received. “What we have now is sufficient and appropriate for what we’re trying to do,” he says.

A TRIPLE THREAT

The C3DI is involved in three principal initiatives. The first involves the VPA and its officer training courses; it’s made up of three phases. This particular initiative is being spearheaded by Robert Edwards, associate director of C3DI and program director for Champlain’s Criminal Justice program.

All 2,000 sworn officers in Vermont are obligated to take part in continuing education courses. The courses are chosen by the State Police Standards Board or sometimes directly ordered by the state legislature and are often, says Edwards, influenced by “the sexy topic of the year, such as domestic violence, DUI, meth labs, et cetera.” For officers to take the required courses, they must take time off from other duties and travel to classroom sites. Edwards and C3DI are working to eliminate such commutes by repurposing one course, Legislative and Decisional Law Update, into a Web-based format that can be accessed by VPA officers at any site with Internet access.

The first phase of the online training rollout involves developing the content; according to Edwards, this phase is currently in its final stages. The second phase consists of bringing the content into Web CT, the same medium that Champlain College uses for its online classes. In the final phase, the class will be offered to officers. When the course goes live, some officers will take the online version of the class, while others will take it in a conventional classroom instructional setting as an experimental control measure.

Edwards hopes that the program will show that online classes are as effective as classroom instruction in terms of test results, more effective in terms of saturation level -- meaning how many of the 2,000 officers in the state received the training in past years compared to how many the online training can reach in future years -- and more cost-effective for the state.

If C3DI can prove the effectiveness of the online courses according to these criteria, then Kessler, Edwards, and their team will look to secure permanent funding and transfer to Web CT as many courses as can feasibly be delivered online.

The second arm of C3DI draws two companies into the partnership: WetStone Technologies and SEARCH, Inc. Although both companies provide digital forensics software and training to law enforcement officers, their classes are unavailable online. Officers must travel to class sites to take one of their training courses. Through C3DI, however, one course from each company will be provided online as a pilot to demonstrate the capabilities and feasibility of online training. The benefits of expanding online course offerings extend to the companies as well as to communities -- and to the country as a whole. By putting training programs online, the companies grow their potential audiences, and law enforcement agencies increase their capacity to conduct digital investigations nationwide. Kessler breaks it down this way: “Take SEARCH, for example. Suppose that their trainings are available to 15 percent of officers in the country. You put those courses online, and they’re available to 95 percent of the officers.”

Those numbers look even more impressive when one considers that the online training efforts will expend only 10 percent, by Kessler’s estimate, of the $650,000 grant. The bulk of the allocation will fund Kara and Woodward’s faculty positions. They’re the third branch of C3DI, teaching two Champlain classes each and spending the balance of their time involved in digital investigations.

Working out of lab space provided by the BPD at its downtown station, Woodward and Kara focus attention on imaging digital evidence, making forensic copies of such items as information contained in cell phones, cameras, and computer hard drives. They then search these devices for evidence useful to particular investigations. For example, drug dealers often take pictures of their “goods” with digital cameras and keep spreadsheets on their computers.

The dual nature of Woodward and Kara’s job, combined with the unpredictability of the need to participate in investigations, means that neither C3DI staffer will likely fall into a set work routine. “It’s pretty need-based,” Kara says of her position. “If we have a big case we’re working on here [at the BPD] and there’s a time limit -- we need to get evidence for court or for a grand jury -- we’ll spend our time here.”

That responsiveness is appreciated at BPD -- the largest municipal law enforcement agency in the state. As Deputy Chief Mike Schirling points out, “As government budgets have been relatively stagnant for some time now, adding that capacity [for digital forensic investigation] through personnel is difficult at best. So, creating these innovative partnerships where we can pull down grant money, add capacity to our workforce, and benefit Champlain’s ability to deliver core teaching content [yields] the perfect hybrid initiatives that help everybody.”

C3DI Director and Champlain Professor Gary Kessler instructs a class in unlocking digital clues.

LEADERSHIP AND THE LEARNING CURVE

As Finney reflected at the December news conference, “It’s clear that our country needs innovative programs to fight crime today, and Champlain is well positioned to deliver leading-edge programs both face-to-face and over the Internet.” Kessler’s team and C3DI are meeting those needs -- and fulfilling the College’s potential as an institution responsive to the challenges that define our world. Thanks to the innovative thinking and responsible leadership that have brought the Center to fruition, Champlain is not merely keeping pace with advances in the critical field of digital forensics but, rather, taking the lead in digital forensic education and training. The results are a dynamic learning environment for students preparing for careers in law enforcement and groundbreaking opportunities for officers nationwide to enhance their knowledge and skill sets more effectively than ever.

For more information on the Champlain College Center for Digital Investigation, visit c3di.champlain.edu. To support the Computer & Digital Forensics program with a financial contribution, visit www.champlain.edu/support.