Story by Ann Houston

State Leads Teacher Training in Digital Forensics

Even the heat of an Oklahoma summer did not keep cyber security instructors away from learning more about the hot topics in digital forensics they are teaching across the country.

More than 40 instructors from eight states were represented at the first Information Assurance and Digital Forensics Workshop recently held on Tulsa Technology Center’s Riverside Campus.

The successful event was hosted by the Oklahoma Center for Information Assurance and Forensics Education (OCIAFE), the first regional consortium in the country to emphasize the emerging field of digital forensics. The consortium is comprised of Oklahoma community colleges, Oklahoma CareerTech system and the University of Tulsa. Instructors from Delaware, Arkansas, New York, Colorado, Texas, Connecticut and beyond converged for three days learning to develop and implement intense laboratory-oriented courses addressing hot issues such as biometrics, intrusion detection and digital forensics. Participants returned home with curriculum, hands-on lab assignments, tests and lectures piloted in Oklahoma schools and technology center cyber security programs. They also requested another workshop to be held in December at Tulsa Tech, according to David Greer. Greer is the information security specialist at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education.

David Lawrence, left, and Aristotle Ogoke, instructors from the Rochester Institute of Technology work on an assignment during the workshop.

“This workshop is designed to give instructors a starting point to build new cyber security programs or fill out existing programs when they return home,” Greer said. “Another benefit to the workshop is that instructors are returning home to educate and help support law enforcement in cyber crime investigations and digital forensics.”

A big advantage of the regional consortium is instructors don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

“We are building relationships and support networks to help each other rather than compete across state lines,” Greer said. “We have spent the last few years building quality cyber security programs in Oklahoma. Now we are starting to focus on the surrounding states of Kansas, Arkansas and Texas growing programs slowly in order to provide high quality curriculum, instructor training, laboratory setup, and program mentoring.”

The OCIAFE was awarded the state’s first National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Center designation and the nation’s second cyber security education and workforce development center.