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InfraGard Huntsville Members Alliance Sparks Interest with Cyber Forensics Camp

FBI agents and a Huntsville Police Officer stage an arrest of a perpetrator fingered by the students as part of the exercise at InfraGard Hunstville’s Cyber Forensics Camp.

In January 2016, the IHMA, along with SSA Todd Berryman and Julie Pechon, began the planning process. Berryman and Pechon took the lead in developing the scenario, working with FBI resources and leadership to ensure that the camp attendees would learn safe online practices, and have hands-on experience collecting clues, developing and recording evidence putting the puzzle pieces together to solve the case.

The kids pieced the story together like this: the victim made a friend online. She told him where she lived and when her parents would be gone. She was under the impression she was talking to a boy her age, but in reality she had befriended a predator whose intent was to take Jenna away from her family.

At the end of the day, the kids solved the case and went outside for pictures. Then they spotted him — the man they identified as the predator. Sirens wailed and a black car blocked the man’s SUV. FBI agents and a Huntsville Police Officer jumped out of their cars and staged an arrest. The looks on the campers’ stunned faces were priceless! By working through the case with the kids, the FBI hopes they planted a seed with the campers to use their technical prowess in law enforcement, to have a greater awareness of online safety, and what they should and should not be sharing. I warned the kids, “What you say and what you post online is very important, and it can be used against you, like what we saw in this case today.”

I advised parents as well, “Communicate with your children. Let them know that they have to be careful what they put online. Not everybody out there is going to be their friend. As parents, we should be talking to our kids. We should have an open dialogue about what they’re doing online, and as parents, we need to know what’s going on online with our kids.”

Organizing the cyber forensics camp started about five to six months out by taking pages from different scenarios and looking at other cyber camps in the area and decided on having the kids work through a realistic scenario that would teach them the importance of online safety, and that would also introduce them to the FBI. The IHMA board met on a bi-weekly basis, talking with InfraGard members and friends, but once the word went out about the camp, volunteers from the community came to us offering their support. Athens State University, Athens, Ala., donated ID badges, notebooks and volunteers to check in the campers. Regions Bank donated the goody bags and volunteers to act as the teams Unit Chiefs. Dynetics hosted the event at their Huntsville Research Park location and CSRA donated lanyards. Other volunteers include MITRE, who hosted our planning meetings and organized certificates and T-shirts; DIB ISAC developed our logo, certificates and our flyer; our monthly meeting host, Quantum Research Huntsville, donated T-shirts for the campers and volunteers. Dominos brought in 23 pizzas free of charge to feed the hungry students and volunteers. But the FBI agents and analysts were the real heroes of our cyber camp; the FBI team put in a tremendous amount of time to develop the scenarios, man the stations, and support many other behind the scenes planning.

The key to planning and undertaking a successful cyber forensics camp was excellent communication with our FBI Coordinator, Paul Daymond, including his communication with and support from SAC Stanton, and his willingness to support the camp with FBI resources. Additionally, reaching out to community partners made a huge impact on our success. They believed in our plan, and our local IHMA board’s passion for protection and information sharing, and it is through this teamwork that the InfraGard Huntsville Cyber Forensics Camp was a complete success!