Cybercrime-Fighting in the eForensics Team

Swinburne University offers the first postgraduate course in eForensics, as a response to the necessity of having professionals with the skills necessary to stop cybercrime and cyber-misconduct.

As almost every one uses computers nowadays, whether it is at work or at home, the rate of cybercrime in increasing, and people don't seem to understand the legal and ethical problems related to computer use.

“Because of the increase in cybercrimes such as computer hacking, fraud and cyber-stalking as well as the prevalence of cyber-misconduct that violates company policy, the number of professionals qualified to deal with these issues is inadequate,” Professor Leon Sterling, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies said.

“We’ve been consulting with leaders in the industry who agree that concern for security and infiltration has led to a substantial upturn in the need for legal and technical advice about cybercrime.

“In an industry straining to keep up with demand, there is a real need for a course like this.”

This course should be very interesting for professionals from business, law enforcement agencies, government and even small to medium-sized companies, speculated course convenor Dr Vivienne Farrell.

The Graduate Certificate in eForensics “will appeal to those trying to protect their organization’s digital operations as well as those involved in investigating and prosecuting cybercrimes,” she said.

Also, Dr Farrell thinks that human resources professionals could also benefit from the course, because “threats are not always external or illegal – among the most common problems employers face are staff members who breach company policy by accessing inappropriate websites or downloading inappropriate material.”

Because it will be launched in time for the 2011 academic year, the Graduate Certificate in eForensics
should brig students both technical expertise and legal information, and help them correctly identify online misconduct and cybercrime, and present this data as evidence in legal procedures.

David Thompson, who is a partner in Deloitte Forensic and has over 26 years of cybercrime-fighting experience, will hold a speech at the program launching, November 9.