Cybersecurity has some of the coolest tools and equipment ever made. White hat hackers must have bleeding edge technology to track and contain bad actors. Sometimes these awesome instruments take surprising forms.
Meet Maple and her partner Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Special Agent Stephanie Cassidy. Maple is formally known as an Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) canine and informally as a cyber dog. Maple and Agent Cassidy are assigned to the Cyber Electronic Surveillance Support Team. Together they located electronic devices that have been concealed by people up to no good online.
You may be wondering what a cyber dog is? Or what does an ESD canine do? Allow me to answer these questions. Maple and Agent Cassidy are assigned to the Cyber Electronic Surveillance Support Team. Together they locate electronic devices that have been concealed by people up to no good online. In an investigation where it is likely that there is evidence on electronic media, Agent Cassidy brings Maple in to literally sniff out all the media devices. People have hidden devices everywhere from flower beds and every crack and cranny in houses.
Maple is able to do this thanks to two things. The first is her keen, canine nose. She is able to smell the individual components of what she sniffs, not just the combined scent. That lets her smell the chemical components that go into electronic media. The second is the existence of those chemicals in the electronic media. In particular, trichloroethylene is distinctive and unique enough to allow canines to identify the location of electronic media.
The electronic media that Maple hunts down include hard drives, disks, SD cards, and gaming devices, among others. Some of these devices are difficult to hide because of their size. Others are easy to hide or disguise.
You may also be wondering what data and information bad actors are trying to hide on these devices. Back in the 1980’s when we used the term “computer crimes” the data was usually part of some type of financial malfeasance. As the internet and the web caught on, the types of crimes shifted to online crimes. The saved to electronic media often tie back to the dark web. The crimes committed that leave evidence behind electronic media include human trafficking networks, child pornography, narcotics, and black market transactions. Given the magnitude of these crimes, we are all better off having teams like Maple and Agent Cassidy protecting us.
By the way, Maple is a rescue dog. Agent Cassidy adopted her when she discovered that Maple was going to be sent to Animal Control after her owner was arrested. After adopting Maple, Agent Cassidy trained her in locating hidden electronic media. How cool is that rescue story? Now, they are a cyber crime fighting team!
For more information on Maple and Agent Cassidy: https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/News/2019/July/Meet-Maple,-FDLE%E2%80%99s-first-ESD-K9
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