Cyber Shockwave, a cyber-attack war-game that aired on CNN in 2010, showed that government policy and law aren’t prepared to cope with cyber-attack threats, according to the Computer Security Institute’s 2010/2011 Computer Crime and Security Survey.
This represents a hole that Sinclair Community College has been working to fill since 1987, when its Computer Crimes class first emerged.
Sinclair now offers Cyber Investigation Technologies (CYIT) as an associate of applied science degree and a one-year certificate. The degree is articulated for transfer to the University of Dayton, University of Cincinnati, Ohio University and Wright State University.
“We’re creating something that each of us doesn’t have,” says Professor Joseph Lammers, head of Sinclair’s cyber investigation track. “By working together and creating this curriculum as two separate departments put together, we’re creating a degree track that meets a need in the industry.”
CSI: Crime Scene Investigators was criticized by experts in 2005 for making similar mistakes, but the same experts commended the TV show for bringing computer forensics into public awareness, according to law firm Pinsent Masons.
The CSI TV series encourages Sinclair student Matt Wellman’s interest in the field, but stories of local police forces downsizing are what led him to switch his major from criminal justice to cyber investigation. Wellman says he had a personal encounter with cyber-crime, when his brother’s Facebook account was stolen.
Danae Cox has been a student of Sinclair’s cyber investigation program since its early stages in 2009. Cox says she is an Air Force security police officer, enlisted for about 20 years, and that her husband is in the Montgomery County Sherriff’s Department. She says she noticed a trend toward computer-skills-based jobs and decided, “Well, I can fight the bad guys on the Net.”
“Learning from Lammers of how easy it is to manipulate the system… I’m sitting here like, wow,” says Cox. “Yeah, it’s scary how easy it is.”
Cox says her sister’s Facebook account was hacked, and the attacker defamed her sister by posting pornographic photos into the account, in full view of her more than 3,000 Facebook friends.
Martha Taylor, Sinclair Computer Information Systems former department chair, says she is focused on corporate jobs for graduates of CYIT, because she thinks that the job outlook for criminal justice professionals is uncertain. In that light, she is focused on private sector employment, and says that continuing education to a bachelor degree is needed.
The degree’s advisory committee membership includes personnel from the FBI, CIA, Air Force, five information security related companies, local police department, and Sinclair faculty and staff, according to documents provided by Sinclair’s Criminal Justice Department. Together, the committee is blending Computer Information Systems and Criminal Justice Science disciplines.
The advisory committee believes that CYIT graduates will be qualified for many existing jobs, including Private Investigator, Systems Administrator, Software Security Certifier and Information Security Officer, according to Criminal Justice Department documents.
The Computer Security Institute’s survey respondents said the most important reason for incidents going unreported to law enforcement is that companies don’t believe that law enforcement can help in those cases.
“The man hours required to actually pursue such an investigation is just immense,” Lammers said. He’s excited about this degree, because, “there are a lot of crimes that are going unprosecuted.”
“There’s so much going on right now,” Lammers says, “I liken it to the Wild West. Almost anything goes. It’s hard to track down.”