Welcome to the Three C’s
First things first. I want to thank Corrections.com for giving me a chance to inform and enlighten on their site. They have been a leader in providing valuable information on corrections via the Internet for sometime. I will make every effort to continue their tradition of excellence in providing quality information on cybercrime for the correctional professional.
Now what are my “creds” as it were for tackling this subject? I have been working in law enforcement/corrections at the state and federal levels for over 25 years now. I literally have had work experiences at every level of the criminal justice process, from law enforcement investigations through post conviction supervision activities.
My interest in cybercrime dates back at least to 1990. I had just read Organizing for Computer Crime Investigation and Prosecution by Catherine H. Conly (1989), U.S. Department of Justice, and found it a compelling topic for law enforcement. I even approached my employer at the time about the need to develop computer investigation skills. From that time forward I took every opportunity that presented itself to learn more about computers and high tech investigations.
Years later, when I again found myself working in corrections, I was shocked to find that few had realized the significance of this topic on probation, parole, etc. I renewed my cybercrime interest with a keen focus on information related to corrections. To this day it is a continuing journey, which I hope to share with you through this blog.
For the past 10 years I have been specifically charged with investigations/supervision of cyber-offenders. This includes sex offenders, fraudsters, cyberstalkers, to name a few. I have installed monitoring software on offenders/defendants computers and have also searched computers. I have also completed investigations involving collecting information from the Internet on offender’s activities.
Do I have a degree in computer science? No, my degrees are in criminal justice (BS) and corrections (MA). What about special training? Well I have training from all the big players, (SEARCH, National White Collar Crime Center, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the FBI, and the High Technology Crime Investigation Association).
You will soon find you don’t have to be able to read binary code (that the 0’s and 1’s code that computers interpret) to understand what is being discussed. Also, you don’t need to be C or Perl programing expert to grasp the skills/techniques that are being used by correctional professionals to address cyber-risk. I hope to challenge the reader to think about this topic and act on the knowledge it brings to prepare for the future.
To paraphrase a well known television show… “Let us boldly go where no one has gone before.” Gee, what else would you expect from someone interested in this topic?….LOL (Laughing Out Loud).