According to The New York Times, Hoover, Al is home to one of the Secret Service’s National Computer Forensics Institute training centers.
While guarding the President is the most highlighted job of the Secret Service, they also play a critical role in protecting the nation against cyber crime. At the facility in Hoover, Secret Service agents annually teach over 1,000 law enforcement officials the skills they need to process digital evidence found on computers and cell phones.
The institute was created in 2008 as a partnership between the Secret Service and the state of Alabama. The reasoning behind its creation stemmed from the lack of training many state and local law enforcement agencies had when dealing with crimes of a cyber nature. This deficiency left agencies reliant on an already strained Secret Service, leading to a backlog of unprocessed cases.
Tuition for the program is free of charge, and often travel and lodging are included.
A typical course usually lasts for five weeks and teaches the basics of computer evidence recovery. Officers leave the course with the understanding to effectively search seized computers for evidence of a crime. Additionally, prosecutors and judges also benefit from the program. They can become trained to work and deal with digital evidence. This is invaluable as courtrooms across the country work to evolve with the lastesrt technology trends.
“The law has not caught up with where the technology is. . . I need to be able to understand it, so I can translate it when I go before a panel of 12 people, ” said Jennifer Eugene, a prosecutor from New Jersey.
The program remains the only one of its kind in the country.
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