Government Orders Scrubbing of Computer Hard Drives

The Air Force Academy has ordered its cadets to commence scrubbing their computers for illicit or illegal material. The cadets said they have been ordered to go through their computer files this weekend and erase any improper data, including illegally acquired music and videos as well as pornography. The data destruction was ordered amidst allegations of cheating. All 4300 cadets were confined to their barracks. If there was child pornography, mere deletion of the data will not protect the cadets, as computer forensic technology can still uncover alleged cyber crimes.

Florida Computer Crime Center

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has created a Florida Computer Crime Center, code named "FC3." They will investigate computer related crime and investigate complex computer crimes. FC3 will also assist with regional investigations and work to identify computer criminals. Investigations will include cases where computers are used to facilitate or help with the crime - child pornography, fraud, banking scams, drugs, and child exploitation, hacking, denial of service attacks, virus replication, network intrusions and cyber terrorism. FC3 intends to identify and harden potential cyber targets in Florida.

Innocent Images Task Force

Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa, explained that the Innocent Images Task Force is made up of FBI agents and detectives from local law enforcement and the U.S. Probation Office. The proliferation of child pornography and child sexual exploitation facilitated by the Internet is viewed as a major law enforcement task. Cole said, “The mission of the Innocent Images Task Force is to reduce the vulnerability of children to acts of sexual exploitation and abuse through computers,” he said.

Using the Department of Homeland Security's resources for computer forensics, the task force seeks convict internet users of computer crimes. most of even the most minor offenses include a stint in federal prison.