Prosecutors

This course provides students with the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to perform a limited digital forensic examination, validate hardware and software tools, and effectively use digital forensic suites and specialized tools. The course begins with a detailed review of the digital forensic examination process, including documentation, case management, evidence handling, validation, and virtualization. Students learn to use today's leading commercial and open source digital forensic suites: Magnet Axiom, X-ways Forensic, and Autopsy. Instruction on each suite will include an interface overview, configuration, hashing, file signature analysis, keyword searching, data carving, bookmarking, and report creation. 

This course covers the acquisition, examination, and analysis of many types of financial records, including bank statements and checks, wire transfer records, and business records. Topics include recognizing and investigating common indicators of fraud, using spreadsheets to facilitate analysis and pattern recognition, and financial profiling. There is a strong focus on presenting financial evidence in multiple modalities: spreadsheet data outputs, graphic representations, and written/oral presentations.

This course provides the technical and legal information prosecutors need to see cases involving digital evidence through the entire criminal justice process, from seizure and extraction to admissibility to verdict. Topics include digital evidence commonly seized during the execution of a search warrant, digital evidence stored remotely by third-party service providers, and the processes investigators use to obtain this evidence (such as the interrogation of digital devices). There is a strong focus on case law and other legal issues surrounding the collection and custody of digital evidence, as well as its use at trial. The course also examines new legislation like the CLOUD Act, which is reforming the digital evidence landscape just as rapidly as the ever-changing case law.

This course provides an overview of the actions investigators can take at the outset of a financial crime investigation. Students learn to ask critical questions, gather documentation, and analyze information for leads. Topics include obtaining and working with financial records, red flags in financial cases, money laundering, investigative strategies for different types of financial crimes, and commingled funds.