About the FDLE Cybercrime Office

The FDLE Cybercrime Office (FCO) established within the FDLE Cyber Bureau in 2023, evolved from  the Florida Computer Crime Center (FC3). The FC3 began its journey 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.

The 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.

On July 1, 2011, the Attorney General’s Child Predator Cyber Crime Unit merged with FDLE’s Florida Computer Crime Center (FC3) as a result of the passage of House Bill 5401. A total of 19 positions transferred from the Attorney General’s Office, all of which were dedicated exclusively to investigating online child exploitation cases. In 2012, FDLE expanded its cyber investigations by assigning cyber/high-tech crime squads in each FDLE region and relocating cyber analysts into the Florida Intelligence Center in Tallahassee. FDLE also created the Office of Cyber High-Tech Crime in headquarters to oversee statewide cyber operations, communications and training, electronic surveillance support and digital forensics.

In 2017, the HQ Office of Cyber High-Tech Crime and the FC3 were combined to create the HQ Cybercrime Office.

In March of 2023, the Cybercrime Office and the Florida Intelligence Center’s Cyber Intelligence Squad were realigned within the new FDLE Cyber Bureau.

Services

The FCO has a statewide mission to investigate complex cybercrimes, assist with state, regional and local investigations, train investigators, disseminate information to the public, and proactively work to identify cyber criminals to prevent future crimes.

To fulfill its mission, the FCO main roles and responsibilities fall under four areas: Investigations, Training, Intelligence, Research and Prevention.
 

• Investigations

The FCO 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, the FDLE Cybercrime Office provides support. The FCO also coordinates with national and state-level investigative task forces.

The FDLE Cybercrime Office provides mobile digital field forensics by way of the 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 tablets, and analysis of Wi-Fi networks.

• Training

The FCO coordinates the yearly Florida Internet Crimes Against Children training conference. This 3-day conference provides presentations and hands-on instructions for federal, state, and local law enforcement employees.  Participants of this conference travel from around the world to attend.
 
The FCO also provides technical training to students of the FDLE Agent Academy and the Florida Law Enforcement Analyst Academy. These training blocks focus on an understanding of and techniques to effectively investigate cyber related criminal activity. 

This website, and SecureFlorida.org are created and maintained by the FCO. These sites allow easy access to educational and informative issues.

• Research

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 FCO overlaps into other areas.

For investigations it is necessary to research new hardware and software to understand a suspect’s system. This enables FCO to locate and preserve evidence in the best manner possible.

For the training initiative of the FCO, 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 the FCO 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.

• Prevention

The Florida Infrastructure Protection Center (FIPC) was created as 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 the FCO.

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)