With a flourish of President Donald Trump's pen Thursday, state and local law enforcement got the tools and training needed to fight cybercrime as the Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017 became law.
Introduced by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, the legislation authorizes the highly regarded National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) in Hoover, Ala., which has trained nearly 7,000 local officials from 50 states and three U.S. territories.
Shortly after Ratcliffe introduced his bill in March, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced a similar bill in the Senate to expand the NCFI its charter to include training local law enforcement in cybersecurity practices.
“I'd like to thank President Trump for his strong support of my bill to ensure our state and local law enforcement officials are properly equipped to address and prosecute crimes in the 21st century – because we're now in an era where almost every case involves some sort of digital evidence,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. “At the end of the day, getting the upper hand against cyber criminals will make our nation safer, and I'm glad that this critical piece of legislation has been signed into law to do just that.”
