NCFTA Student Internship
During a 12 week, unpaid internship, the student will have the opportunity to work on various initiative based teams that work on Brand Identity Fraud, Credit Card Fraud, Pharmaceutical Fraud, Investment/Securities Fraud, Phishing, and/or Malicious Software. Generally, duties could involve assisting in analysis and reporting of data collected from a variety of sources to produce open source intelligence reports, incident briefs on various cyber-criminal activities, and threat assessments on organized cyber-criminal groups.
Required tasks include:
- Researching various aspects of law enforcement-based cases and criminal behavior [e.g., predictive analysis, crime trends, forecasting, and early warnings]
- Analytical thinking and presentation, strategic thinking, and analytical methodologies
- Assisting in the development of comprehensive training exercises and scenarios
- Developing and extending resource materials for the NCFTA in topics such as human sources, NCFTA proprietary sources of information, foreign language resources, and international and domestic terrorism or counter terrorism.
Some duties within the NCFTA are more technical in nature, and as such, applicants with a sound, technical background are highly desired but not required. These duties may include writing scripts to automate processes (e.g. PERL, shell scripts), creating small applications that help other analysts conduct intelligence assessments, reviewing and analyzing malicious code (e.g. C, C++, Delphi, VB.NET, Assembly, Java), and creating databases (MySQL, MS SQLServer, PostGreSQL). Students with knowledge of IRC, Mac OS X, or P2P may have an opportunity to work on special projects.
Note: Applicants should be aware that subject matter involved might be graphic in nature.
Student Qualifications:
- Study in one of the following areas: International Studies, Computer Science, Information Security, Criminal Justice, Business, or a related field. Other majors are considered on a case by case basis.
- Minimum GPA of 3.0
- Arabic, Turkish, Russian, and Eastern European language skills desirable
- Extensive experience with computers and networking highly preferred, but not required
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office required
- Proficient writing skills and analytical abilities necessary
- Student must be a US citizen and be able to provide his/her own transportation
Hours:
The office hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday. Student Analysts will be expected to work a set number of hours during this time period. The position is a minimum of 12 weeks, with extended contract opportunities available.
Locations:
Internships are available in both Pittsburgh, PA and Fairmont, WV.
Sessions:
Internships are available during the following sessions:
*Note application deadlines in parentheses beside the session dates
Spring Session: February 1 –
April 30 (Deadline: January 1)
Summer Session: June 1 –
August 31 (Deadline: May 1)
Fall Session: October 1 –
December 31 (Deadline: September 1)
Submitting Resumes:
Resumes should be directed to: [email protected].
*PLEASE NOTE: Final selections will be contingent on a successful background check.
NCFTA Cyber Alerts
FBI looks for
partnerships to counter Cyber threat
Mueller pointed to the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance as a model for private industry and law enforcement collaboration.
Press Release: Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and United Kingdom Officials to address government and industry collaboration on fighting cyber threats
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Fleishman-Hillard Alex Kepnes, 703-575-8900 [email protected] PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR TOM CORBETT, FBI, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, AND UNITED KINGDOM OFFICIALS TO ADDRESS GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY COLLABORATION ON FIGHTING CYBER THREATS Forum to Focus on Steps Industry and Government Must Take to Address Cyber Threats at National, State and Local Levels [...]
Tax Refund Spam
Individuals should be vigilant of emails concerning tax refunds. Fraudsters consistently send spam appearing to be from the IRS and financial institutions containing a link to a phishing website and/or malware typically during tax season in the US. Fraudsters then attempt to either socially engineer potential victims and/or infect their computers in order to gain [...]
Email Compromise and Wire Fraud
The NCFTA, along with its law enforcement and industry partners, has observed that cyber criminals are gaining access to compromised email accounts and leveraging the relationship between the email account holder and their financial advisor to request unauthorized wire transfers. The criminals either use the existing email address or slightly change the email address by adding or supplementing a letter or number. The criminals then typically attempt to socially engineer the advisor through stories of hardship or loss in order to justify the wire transfer.
Once the criminals have verified the amount in the account, they request that funds be sent to bank accounts in the US, Australia, and Malaysia. Some of the funds sent to US and Australian accounts have ultimately been sent to Malaysian accounts. Some of the money mules were recruited by romance scams on dating websites. Banks, brokerage firms, and credit unions of all sizes have been affected by this scam.
Please see http://www.ic3.gov/media/2012/EmailFraudWireTransferAlert.pdf for additional information on this scam and guidance on how to report such incidents to law enforcement.