This course introduces learners to the concept of digital footprints and best practices in protecting personally identifiable information (PII). Topics include limiting an individual’s digital footprint, protecting privacy on social media, and the consequences of oversharing personal information, as well as steps to take after becoming a target of doxing.
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 basic intelligence writing and briefing principles, as well as methods for effective and clear intelligence sharing. Topics include creative/critical thinking and critical reading skills, source evaluation, privacy and civil rights, intelligence product writing structure and style, and creating and presenting intelligence briefings. With guidance from experienced experts, students gain hands-on experience by working through data sets based on real cases to produce intelligence products. An instructor and peer feedback process is applied to the reports and briefings produced in class.
This course promotes a multiagency approach to the problem of financial exploitation of senior citizens. Bringing together law enforcement personnel and adult protective services investigators, the course enhances students' investigative skills and interviewing techniques while facilitating networking and cooperation that can extend out of the classroom and into real cases. Topics include recognizing elder abuse, working with victims, and identifying perpetrators, as well as resources for investigation and community awareness. Students work together to conduct a mock investigation into a hypothetical case.
This course introduces the problem of intellectual property (IP) theft and provides tools, techniques, and resources for investigating and prosecuting these crimes. A combination of lecture, discussion, and interactive exercises illustrates the potential dangers and economic repercussions of counterfeit products, as well as best practices and techniques for investigating IP theft. Students are provided with a state-specific workbook that includes relevant statutes, sample organizational documents for IP investigations, and additional resources for investigators and prosecutors.
This course provides the advanced skills and knowledge necessary to analyze data on iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad) and Android devices at an advanced level. Students use forensically sound tools and techniques to analyze potential evidence, employing advanced techniques to uncover evidence potentially missed or misrepresented by commercial forensic tools. Topics include identifying potential threats to data stored on devices, using available acquisition options, accessing locked devices, and understanding the default folder structure. Core skills include analyzing artifacts such as device information, call history, voicemail, messages, web browser history, contacts, and photos. Instruction is provided on developing the "hunt" methodology for analyzing third-party applications not supported by commercial forensic tools.
This course teaches students to identify and collect volatile data, acquire forensically sound images of Apple Macintosh computers, and perform forensic analysis of macOS operating system and application artifacts. Students gain hands-on experience scripting and using automated tools to conduct a simulated live triage, and use multiple methods to acquire forensically sound images of Apple Macintosh computers. Topics include how the macOS default file system stores data, what happens when files are sent to the macOS Trash, where operating system and application artifacts are stored, and how they can be analyzed. Forensic artifacts covered include password recovery, recently opened files and applications, encryption handling, Mail, Safari, Messages, FaceTime, Photos, Chrome, and Firefox.
This course builds on the concepts introduced in "Financial Crime (FC) 101 - Financial Investigations Practical Skills" and "FC 105 - Financial Records Examination and Analysis," introducing investigators and prosecutors to emerging issues in financial crime. Topics include money laundering, analyzing large financial data sets, conducting effective interviews, and managing large amounts of financial evidence. This course consists of a mix of lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises. Students conduct a mock investigation that includes interviews, data analysis, and the examination of various documents.
This course provides students with the fundamental knowledge and skills they need to investigate crimes involving virtual currency. Instructors explain foundational concepts like the characteristics of money, virtual currency, and cryptocurrency. Blockchain technology, proof work, and proof of stake are covered, and students learn how industry-leading cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero) work and how they differ from each other. Finally, students learn investigative techniques for tracking and documenting transactions and best practices for seizing and securing cryptocurrency.
This course promotes a multiagency approach to the problem of financial exploitation of senior citizens. Topics include working with senior victims, examining documents like bank records and power of attorney, and using resources for investigation and community awareness. Detailed examination of a case study, from initial complaint to prosecution, reinforces and illustrates the course content. With a dual focus on financial abuse by trusted persons and common scams aimed at seniors, the course introduces senior-specific investigative skills while facilitating networking and cooperation that can extend out of the classroom and into real cases.