Digital Forensics is defined as the practice of using scientifically derived and proven technical methods and tools toward the preservation, collection, validation, identification, analysis, interpretation, documentation and presentation of after-the-fact digital information from digital sources for the purpose of facilitating or furthering the reconstruction of events as forensic evidence.
The West Virginia State Police Digital Forensics Unit officially opened its doors on March 29, 2002 with a one room laboratory on the campus of West Virginia University (WVU). “Those were lean times when we started,” says First Sergeant Christopher Casto, the unit’s director. “It all began in a small room with one computer and one analyst working cases on a part time basis.”
Fourteen cases were submitted for analysis in 2002 and this case load has steadily increased over the years. Over 1,200 cases have been submitted from law enforcement across West Virginia since beginning the unit with 337 accepted for examination in 2011. According to Casto, the case submissions have increased by an average of 30 to 40 percent per year since opening the doors on the Digital Forensics Unit.
The West Virginia State Police has come a long way since those early days in digital forensics and now has two full-service laboratories. The unit is headquartered out of Morgantown adjacent to WVU’s Evansdale Campus with a satellite laboratory in Huntington on Marshall University’s Campus. “It would not have been possible to put this Unit together without the help of WVU and Marshall,” says Casto. “But the biggest catalyst to forming this Unit came from the National White Collar Crime Center, NW3C.” NW3C’s Computer Crime Section is housed in their Fairmont, WV offices and provides training, research and support to law enforcement nationwide with regards to cybercrime and digital forensics.
“NW3C helped us get this off the ground in 2002 by partnering with WVU to provide us with office space and equipment and they continue to support us to this day and play an important role in our mission within West Virginia,” he explains.
Since those early days the Digital Forensics Unit has grown in many ways and supports all law enforcement in West Virginia. “We now have five fulltime analysts between our two labs and another one starting in early April. This gives us a total complement of twelve digital forensics analyst associated with our Unit,” Casto says. In addition to their two laboratories, they have added three field locations around the state. These are located in Wheeling, Martinsburg and Beckley. They have also been instrumental in assisting other agencies with building digital forensics capabilities through the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Grant Program which they manage in West Virginia. This has allowed them to fund digital forensics training, equipment and software for the Bridgeport Police Department in Harrison County, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department and the Parkersburg Police Department in Wood County.
“Part of our mission within ICAC is building forensics capacity within West Virginia and these agencies have stepped up to the plate,” says Casto. “It has been a great relationship for us all and there is plenty of work to go around.”
