Dedicating Resources: The Find Evidence Button is Broken

Brian J. Kelly, Cyber Analyst - IPPC Technologies

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released their Internet Crime Report for 2021, which reports the IC3 received “847,376 reported complaints, which was a 7% increase from 2020, with potential losses exceeding $6.9 billion. Among the 2021 complaints received, ransomware, business e-mail compromise (BEC) schemes, and the criminal use of cryptocurrency are among the top incidents reported. In 2021, BEC schemes resulted in 19,954 complaints with an adjusted loss of nearly $2.4 billion.”

The U.S. Department of Justice Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC) reported that in 2021, “ICAC task force programs conducted more than 137,000 investigations and 90,300 forensic exams. These efforts resulted in the arrests of more than 10,400 individuals. Additionally, the ICAC program trained over 29,500 law enforcement personnel, over 2,250 prosecutors, and more than 7,300 other professionals working in the ICAC field.”

Unfortunately, probation and parole agencies continue to report concerns that have been present for years; the lack of resources to focus on the complexity of cybercrime. Resources such as staffing, training, equipment, and most importantly, time. All of these resources depend on each other. An agency can throw away buckets of money by purchasing new and fancy digital forensic equipment, but if staff is not properly trained and/or does not have the time to dedicate to the cases and examinations, it’s all for naught. When we look at other community corrections specialty areas such as drug and mental health treatment, etc., nothing has changed at the speed and rate of technology and cybercrime. 

There is also an unreasonable expectation and/or lack of understanding that comes with the analysis of data captured by computer and Internet monitoring technologies as well as data obtained from digital forensics. The ongoing joke when I was an officer is that we would claim the “find evidence” button was broken. That’s because it never existed. While artificial intelligence tools have greatly improved over the years, the tools and validation of information uncovered are only as smart as a human behind them. A piece of data such as adult pornography may not be relevant in a criminal investigation, but it may be important in the supervision and compliance of a sex offender case. Evidence of criminal activity and compliance to the conditions of supervision can often be two very different things. Guidance from the case officer, or the case officer themselves, is best to advise what is relevant. Dedicating proper resources to officers is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

IPPC Technologies’ computer & Internet monitoring solutions, which include robust artificial intelligence tools, and services such as Spotlight and Express Scan, will assist officers throughout the supervision process. The goal of Spotlight is to give officers streamlined and verified leads they need to follow up on concerning behavior as well as reduce the amount of data officers ultimately need to review. Spotlight does not provide a “deep dive” review, nor does it remove the need for officers to review data, but rather gives them a respite from the volume that can exhaust even the most seasoned and focused officer. Express Scan is an examination tool that can be run from an IPPC USB toolkit on Windows and Mac devices. It will scan the device for a number of notable items including but not limited to, system information, installed programs, multimedia, documents, web content which includes parsing out email addresses contained in URLs located in a web browser’s history. Express Scan will also look for and obtain user login credentials when saved in web browser cache files. Express Scan can also be run remotely on certain Windows devices. IPPC Technologies continues to work directly with agencies and officers and strive towards predictive and proactive solutions so officers can intervene early and address areas of concern. For more information on IPPC’s services such as Spotlight and Express Scan, please call IPPC at (888)-WEB-IPPC or contact me directly at bkelly@ippctech.net or by calling (516)341-4201.