Jim Christy: The Defense Cyber Crime Center

Black Hat Briefings, Las Vegas 2005 [Audio] Presentations from the security conference

This talk will cover the Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), our mission and capabilities. The DC3 is one-stop shopping for cyber crime related support. We have approximately 160 people assigned in 3 main organizations: * The Defense Computer Forensics Lab - probably the largest digital forensics lab in the world and the leader in handling large datasets. One case averages 75 terabytes. * The Defense Computer Investigations Training Program - the most high-tech classrooms in the world, training all of the DoD criminal and counterintelligence agents on the techniques to investigate cyber crime. FBI, Secret Service and Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service actually buy our courses for their agents due to the quality. * The Defense Cyber Crime Institute - my organization, responsible for research and development of new digital forensics tools as well as the validation, test and evaluation of these tools. Since crime labs now are moving to accreditation so that their evidence will be admissible in court, all of the tools used in a crime lab must first be independently tested and validated. You can't download the latest and greatest tool from the Internet or purchase it and use it without validating it first. Digital forensics is now a recognized forensic discipline just like, ballistic, serology, DNA, handwriting analysis, and finger print analysis. As such, there are best practices that must be adhered to. The discipline is on the cusp, moving from adhoc to certified professionals. The institute would like to be the consumer reports for digital forensics tools someday. Check out our website, www.dc3.gov.