Cybercrime spurs college courses in digital forensics

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2006 | by Jon Swartz

SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the hottest new courses on U.S. college campuses is a direct result of cybercrime.

Classes in digital forensics -- the collection, examination and presentation of digitally stored evidence in criminal and civil investigations -- are cropping up as fast as the hackers and viruses that spawn them.

About 100 colleges and universities offer undergraduate and graduate courses in digital forensics, with a few offering majors. There are programs at Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Tulsa, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Central Florida. Five years ago, there were only a handful.

"I teach students to be like (TV supersleuth) MacGyver," says Sujeet Shenoi, a computer science professor at the...