I received an email from AccessData the other day in my work inbox, advertising something called the National Repository for Digital Forensic Intelligence, or NRDFI. According to DC3, this is a joint effort between DC3 and OSU, and it was discussed in this PDF, and in Nov, 2007, some funding was provided.
The AccessData email said that NRDFI is a "knowledge management platform for collecting and sharing digital forensic information." The email goes on to say that the repository has been seeded with over 1000 documents - examiner tips and tricks, whitepapers, digital forensic tool collections, etc.
Sound interesting. Too bad it's completely off-limits to non-LE such as myself, those who have an interest and desire to contribute, but are not sworn officers. To some extent, IMHO, while the NRDFI is definitely a step in the right direction, it's leaving out a lot of folks who can and are willing to contribute.
I received an email at work about this several months ago. I replied with interest and never heard another thing from them. I sent another email a month or so later asking what the status was and received a reply, but nothing since then.
ReplyDeleteThe site has a little ways to go in becoming functional, though what's been promised offers a lot of potential. It appears that many of the "seeded" files are somewhat dated. I certainly share your view on access, though my comments usually fall on deaf ears.
ReplyDeleteIACIS is going to revisit its access policy this year, as I understand things. There does need to be some LE only information exchange, such as details on investigations, suspects, and intelligence. Forensic science, however, thrives on knowledge, which is about the only thing we can't consume in too great a quantity.
I searched my emails and found I sent my contact information to them on April 30 on their request. Never heard another thing out of them after that.
ReplyDeleteI asked Jim Christie from DC3 about this at Black Hat, and he said that LE entities would drop out if this program was opened to the private sector. The LE folks are scrubbing or anonymizing the data that is going into the repository, so they feel they cannot open it up. At any rate, I wish them all the best and hope something similar materializes for everyone's use.
ReplyDeleteI asked Jim Christie from DC3 about this at Black Hat, and he said that LE entities would drop out if this program was opened to the private sector. The LE folks aren't scrubbing or anonymizing the data that is going into the repository, so they feel they cannot open it up. At any rate, I wish them all the best and hope something similar materializes for everyone's use.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the most interesting things about this is that this portal is likely going to populated with stuff from the outside, anyway...presentations, articles, papers, etc. After all, Jim was at BlackHat, right? Stuff from the community, such as BH and DFRWS papers, are very likely going to find their way onto this portal.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad that they won't allow select, vetted individuals access, or even got to them for specific input. I'm not so much asking for access to the portal, as much as I'm offering to review and provide material.
Thats kind of amusing that it won't be available to many of the people who wrote the papers hosted there. You gotta love it. But on a more serious note, won't this be pretty similar to the forensicwiki? Does being LE only make it any better than what we already have?
ReplyDelete