About the Florida Computer Crime Center
The Florida Computer Crime Center (FC3) began its journey to creation in January of 1998 after then Commissioner James T. Moore attended a Computer Crimes Focus Group held in Charleston, South Carolina. Commissioner Moore returned to FDLE with the resolve to have FDLE establish its own focus group to discuss computer crimes in Florida and how FDLE should respond. This focus group was the springboard for the creation of FC3, which was officially ordained in July of 1998.
FC3 was established to have both policy planning and operational responsibilities as well as to provide a broad range of services. These services included criminal investigations, regional investigative support, training, and advanced computer forensic services. In the years since the establishment of FC3 the center has become a national leader in the fight against computer crime.
Services
FC3 has a statewide mission to investigate complex computer crimes, assist with regional investigations, train investigators, disseminate information to the public, and proactively work to identify computer criminals to prevent future crimes.
To fulfill its mission, FC3’s main roles and responsibilities fall under four areas: Investigations, Training, Research and Prevention.
FC3 conducts investigations that are more complex in nature or exceed the capabilities of FDLE's seven regional offices. Examples of cases include network intrusions, denial of service attacks, child pornography, and other Internet-related crimes.
When other law enforcement agencies require assistance in their technology-related investigations, FC3 provides support. FC3 also coordinates with national and state-level investigative task forces.
The Florida Computer Crime Center provides mobile digital field forensics by way of the FC3 Evidence Collection for Technical Operations van (ECTO-1). This mobile platform was specially designed by computer experts to provide a field level forensic capability to cybercrime investigations or any investigation requiring the analysis of digital media. Capabilities include the imaging of computer hard drives, forensic previews of computers and other digital media for files of evidentiary value, cloning of cell phones and PDAs, and analysis of WIFI networks.
The Computer Crime Center provides a basic Internet crime investigative techniques training course, Introduction to Internet Investigations, for employees of criminal justice agencies. This one-day training course covers several knowledge areas vital to the investigator and analyst working with Internet-related criminal investigations.
The FC3 also coordinates training programs from other sources for delivery to Florida law enforcement officers and FDLE members
Involvement with the Tallahassee InfraGard Chapter provides another training avenue. InfraGard offers, in a trusted environment, private industry, academia, government, and law enforcement the opportunity to share information about infrastructure vulnerabilities and how to overcome them.
This website, the CJNET website (for criminal justice agencies and law enforcement only), and SecureFlorida.org are created and maintained by FC3. These sites allow easy access to educational and informative issues.
Research is a vital component in investigations, training and prevention. In order to effectively perform in these areas, time must be committed to studying new and evolving technologies. Research developed in one area of FC3 overlaps into other areas.
For Investigations it is necessary to research new hardware and software to understand a suspect’s system. This enables FC3 to locate and preserve evidence in the best manner possible.
For the Training initiative of FC3 it is necessary to research the ever-changing techniques used by computer criminals. That information can then be incorporated into training and disseminated to the criminal justice community throughout the state.
The Prevention aspect of FC3 directly benefits from the testing of new hardware and software. This testing provides an accurate and effective preventive response to a personal or enterprise threat on a computer system.
FC3 has developed the Florida Infrastructure Protection Center (FIPC). The FIPC is a partnership between several state and national agencies which helps defend the critical infrastructures of the state of Florida from disasters, cyber incidents, and terrorist attacks.
Secure Florida, the FIPC's cyber security awareness arm, has a statewide mission to protect the citizens and economy of Florida. It succeeds at this by reducing the vulnerability to cyber attacks and increasing responsiveness to any threat. One such avenue is an extremely successful and award-winning website, SecureFlorida.org, developed and created by the staff of FC3.
The Secure Florida white paper outlines the history and purpose of the Secure Florida initiative. A brief description of the Secure Florida website and alert system is also provided. (Microsoft Word format.)
The Florida Infrastructure Protection Center (FIPC) white paper contains brief descriptions of the various components of the FIPC, as well as a background summary. (Microsoft Word format)