NCJ Number
88604
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The increased use of computer systems in financial, business, and government enterprises and the associated rise of personnel trained in their use constitutes a frontier for a variety of computer-related crime, and law enforcement personnel must be trained to detect and investigate such crimes.
Abstract
Education in university and college police sciences, law enforcement curriculums, and police academics should include courses in the basic principles of data processing, with emphasis on the various forms of data entry, functions performed by the computer while processing data, and methods of distribution and use of information. The intent of the courses should be to acquaint students with those areas of data processing vulnerable to criminal manipulation and penetration. The student should also be informed about which data processing personnel are the best resources for assistance in an investigation and those which may be the most logical offenders. In establishing such courses, guidance can be provided by the curriculum of the Economic and Financial Crimes Training Unit of the FBI Academy. This curriculum defines three levels of training for the computer crime investigator: (1) an awareness level, which trains the investigator to recognize the unsophisticated or more obvious misuse of computer technology; (2) a comprehensive level, which trains investigators to deal with crimes that involve the modification of computer programs and data storage devices; and (3) a specialist level, where the areas of telecommunications and modification of the operating system are penetrated by persons with highly technical program experience. The FBI indicates that if training is provided to investigators at levels one and two, 93 percent of the known computer crimes occurring to date could have been effectively investigated.