Master’s Degree in Digital Forensics Philip Craiger Dept. of Engineering Technology & National Center for Forensic Science, philip@craiger.net Lucille Ponte Dept. of Legal Studies, lponte@mail.ucf.edu Carrie Whitcomb National Center for Forensic Science, whicomb@mail.ucf.edu Mark Pollitt Dept. of Engineering Technology, & National Center for Forensic Science, mpollitt@mail.ucf.edu Ronald Eaglin Dept. of Engineering Technology, reaglin@mail.ucf.edu University of Central Florida Orlando, FL 32816 Abstract Law enforcement agents at the local, state, and Federal levels have informed us of backlogs of computer-related crime cases ranging from 18 months to three years. The primary cause of these backlogs is the lack of educated and trained personnel to serve as digital forensics examiners. In response to this need, the University of Central Florida has created a Masters in Digital Forensics. This 30-hour degree is an interdisciplinary mix of technical, legal, ethical, and courtroom testimony-based courses. Students must complete a capstone course as well as a graduate internship to demonstrate proficiency in the knowledge and skills acquired from the courses. 1. Introduction Digital Forensics has been called both a profession and a science that involves the identification, preservation, extraction, documentation, and interpretation of digital media for evidentiary purposes [15]. Business and industry use digital forensics to assemble information within their own businesses regarding intellectual property theft, fraud, network and computer intrusions, and unauthorized use of computers and other digital media. Law enforcement agencies employ digital forensics to gather digital evidence for a variety of crimes including child pornography, fraud, terrorism, extortion, cyberstalking, money laundering, forgery, and identity theft. Government agencies utilize digital forensics in ensuring compliance with relevant administrative regulations. Military and government intelligence agencies use digital forensics to collect intelligence information from computers captured during military actions. Unfortunately, the growth of computer-based crime has outpaced law enforcement and industries’ ability to manage these events. This growth has resulted in backlogs in the case of law enforcement, and in businesses quietly letting employees go who use computers for illegal or unethical purposes because of the lack of requisite personnel to handle these problems. The primary cause of these problems is the lack of forensics-educated personnel – students or law enforcement agents – required to examine and process the growing amounts of digital evidence. Backlogs are widespread phenomena for law enforcement at the local, state, and national level. Several agencies from around the country have informed us of backlogs ranging from eighteen months to three years. The lack of educated computer crime personnel is more apparent for rural communities who often lack funding for travel and the fee of educational programs, the total cost of which commonly exceeds tens of thousands of dollars per person per year. Even when an agency has funding, computer crime investigators are only allowed brief amounts of in-service training, and therefore off- site training is impractical. The burgeoning role of digital forensics in civil litigation and for government regulatory agencies will only put further stresses and demands on the digital forensics profession. The need for education and training programs is a national phenomenon. A study by the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College [7] found that 7% of computer crime investigators had no formal training, and only 11% had completed a full course of academic study in a related field. 90% of the survey respondents indicated an urgent need for additional training and education. Better-educated Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2007 1 © 1530-1605/07 $20.00 2007 IEEE Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07) 0-7695-2755-8/07 $20.00 © 2007