De Montfort to train cyber sleuths

A British university is to offer a four-year sandwich degree course in computer forensics.

Leicester's De Montfort University is hoping to recruit 20 students for the course, which begins in September and is one of only five of its kind in the UK.

Peter Norris, who will be the course leader, said: "It's fundamentally centred on collecting digital evidence. It's seeking to educate people to [search for] artefacts. More and more inappropriate acts are actually becoming simpler. You don't have to be an advanced hacker to carry out some of the attacks today."

Norris said the university has been planning the course for the last 16 months. To graduate, students are expected to work in security companies and with some law enforcement agencies.

"There's a technical side on how systems work. It looks at professionalism in the law - what is involved and what challenges people will face under pressure, and that's nothing to do with the technical domain. And there is an investigative tools [section] so that they go out equipped," Norris said.