On course to fight the cyber bandits

May 16 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

A NEW facility has opened which could help hundreds of companies tackle the growing problem of cybercrime.

Gateshead College’s new Digital Forensics Lab at its Baltic Campus site will offer the very latest courses to equip companies with the skills needed to track criminal activity and implement preventative measures.

The £75,000 lab is the first of its type in the region to use advanced PC-based software to teach in-house IT technical staff the latest in high tech digital investigation.

Fraudulent activities including those committed by dishonest employees using computers, mobile phones and the internet could be costing regional business hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

The Digital Forensics Lab was designed with support and guidance from Northumbria Police and the North East Fraud Forum (NEFF).

Gateshead College’s Assistant Principal, Adult and Higher Education, Mary Lindsay, said: “Our digital forensics courses will provide people with the skills and confidence to tackle a costly and highly damaging problem.”

Det Sgt Alan Batey, head of Northumbria Police’s computer crime unit, said that the number of investigations had increased from 72 in 1998 to almost 300 in 2008.

Investment funding has been provided by regional development agency One North East.