Visit to NCFI

Today my office visited the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) in Hoover, Alabama. Although the NCFI is not an e-learning institute, it does focus on providing training to law enforcement officials throughout the United States in the areas of computer forensics and digital handling techniques.

The NCFI, a joint endeavour between the United States Secret Service and the State of Alabama, was established in 2007. The facility, provided by the State of Alabama, has five high-tech classrooms, an amazing “wired” mock courtroom, a computer forensic lab, and other meeting and training areas. Using the NCFI, the United States Secret Service provides cyber crime and computer forensic training for state and local law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges from across the country.

Because of the high-tech environment in which criminal activity is taking place, law enforcement is facing unprecedented challenges, especially in the areas of computer-based crimes (i.e., child pornography, identity theft, etc.), crimes where computers are used in the planning or execution phases (i.e., making bombs, recording the proceeds of a crime, etc.), and use of the Internet to threaten our banking, financial and critical infrastructures. The NCFI addresses these challenges by providing training on cyber-investigative techniques and by sharing current expertise.

Since its inception, the NCFI has trained over 1,000 law enforcement personnel from all 50 states, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico. This is a top-notched organization, in a world-class facility, located right here in Alabama.