How Investigators Carry Trauma And Why Support Must Catch Up

Originally released 4 years ago++ years ago.

We shine a light on the mental toll of digital forensics, from windowless labs to the lingering effects of exposure to child exploitation evidence. We share why we launched a scholarship to push for real mental health resources, and we ask for help destigmatizing care.

• hidden cost of DFIR work on mental health
• how trauma follows across roles and sectors
• lack of employer-provided, specialized resources
• peer support and therapy as career maintenance
• trusted sources and the importance of verification
• articles that frame practical steps and awareness
• our scholarship goals and how funds will be used
• a friend’s crisis as a call to act now

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Personal Check-In
• 0:52 Naming The Mission
• 1:34 The Hidden Toll Of DFIR Work
• 2:38 Leaving Government, Trauma Follows
• 3:46 No Resources And Mounting Need
• 4:29 A Friend In Crisis
• 5:10 Scholarship Vision And Advocacy
• 6:30 Trusted Sources And Caution
• 7:28 Articles And Awareness Push
• 7:59 Funding Goal And Next Steps
• 8:24 Credits And Support Link

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Nerds and Nonsense was recorded to hard drive in front of a previously recorded studio audience. Hey, Heidi Holy Friendly Neighborhood DME Resources guy again. On vacation, recommended by my doctor, who's a great guy. And uh unfortunately, I'm just not wired that way. So it, you know, it can be problematic. I agreed to uh cover TechSport today for a company I work for for a couple hours as other people needed a break, and I've had some time down, and I feel so amazing it's unreal. But this episode, what's this about? Well, it's not uh just me rambling as usual, it's something very, very important to me. Topic that I really would like our new scholarship to advocate for throughout the digital forensics incident response community and industry. I would like agencies to be aware of what these investigators are doing to themselves for the greater good. I would like the investigators themselves to better understand how their line of work is affecting their mental health and how their mental health and well-being affects those around them. I'm very adamant about this because I have worked in rooms with no windows for quite some time as a pioneer in digital and multimedia uh forensics specifically. And, you know, I went into that niche area because dead box computer forensics, back when I started doing dead box computer forensics, it was almost all exclusively child exploitation and child, you know what I'm talking about. Stuff you don't want to see, stuff you don't even want to know about, right? And dealing with that hour after hour, day after day, is horrific enough. It just does not leave you. Even if you think it's left you, uh something will remind you. In your daily life, your daily, you know, activities, just with your family and friends and things of that nature. There are some resources out there, others have been talking about this for some time. I've been talking about it since the late 90s, early 2000s, because it, like I said, is is very important to me. I hadn't myself realized the trauma that I had done to myself in the military and also uh in local and state government, and then in the private sector. The private sector side when I left uh local government to go into the private sector and and continue on in forensics, you know, a large part of that reasoning was there there were several reasons to walk away from government, but another big part of that reasoning was to get away, uh further away from the child exploitation stuff. I had been doing it for a while, like I said, then I specialized in multimedia, specifically video and uh digital multimedia forensics, and to get away from it. But of course, it's there as well, right? So the the dead box computer forensics guys would get get some something or a lead or something, we'd end up with mobile phones, and there I am doing the mobile phones extraction and the video stuff, right? Just watching this stuff over and over and over again. So, yeah, not not good for anyone's sanity. And I gotta tell you, there are thousands of people doing this on a daily basis around the world. And and whether they know it or not, many of them are are going to suffer for it and need to go through therapy and things of that nature, which I I haven't done specific to this type of trauma. I have not had any resources available to me through my employers in my entire career specific to this. Now, that's not to say that the VA didn't uh provide some counseling uh when I got out of the service. They absolutely did. And in, you know, that was that was very helpful. I think right now, at this very moment, my best friend, M3, is in need of some counseling and some mental health help as well, which is, as I mentioned previously, was one of the reasons I created the podcast, was for me to be able to focus on my mom and my best friend and my family. And it's worked out to in that ext in that you know extent, it's just been such a success. Until now, in regards to M3s dropping off the grid the last couple weeks. So I've got calls in, I've spoken with his son, I've spoken with left a message with his sister, and I'm hoping we can figure out what's going on there and get some answers today. But in any case, back to the topic uh mental stress, mental health of digital forensic investigators. I'd like our new scholarship, as I said, to also promote the necessity of having resources available to investigators for mental health and mental stress. There's some great articles out there on the web if you just Googled, you know, mental health and digital forensics, that sort of thing. Several are on forensic focus. Forensicfocus.com often has some some good articles. Many are written by vendors as well. So take take things with a grain of salt, but you know, hey, I'm a vendor. So and uh I, you know, take take what I say with a grain of salt. Uh, you know, trust but verify type of thing, you know. I remember at the county I had a sergeant major that that brought me into the county and uh and got me in uh into the county position and telecommunications and networking. And this sergeant major told me, you know, one day something something to the effect, let me think. Can I remember what he said? Hmm, shit. In God we trust. In all others, we verify. Right? That's what it was. In any case, so on forensic focus, I'll have a link in the description to at least one or two of their related stories, like Reducing the Mental Stress of Investigators, which was published uh back in 2018 and written by Eric Oldenberg from Griffeye. Pretty decent article. Also, Somebody Else's Hero, Mental Health in Digital Forensics, which was published in 2020 by Forensic Focus. Author doesn't seem to be shown here. So I'll have those links in the description for you. And I highly recommend you, you know, take a look, be aware at least of this issue, and help me spread the word how important it is for folks to not be stigmatized for needing therapy to deal with uh some of these issues. Thanks so much for your time. Stay tuned for more information on the scholarship program and the GoFundMe we've uh recently created. Very excited. We've got a goal of$150,000 in the first year. So by June 1st of next year, I would like to have$150,000 to turn over to some scholarship program, hopefully to Marshall University's forensics program, and also uh pay for some advertising pertaining to these issues that I'm that I have mentioned in our our mission statement, sort of on DME Resources.com. So check that out there. Thanks so much for your time and stay tuned. Have a great day. Copyright 2021 nerdsandnonsense.com. All rights reserved. Well, except but I don't really mind if you share this, so maybe feel free to do that. You know, share and share alike, that sort of thing. Speaking of copyrights, though, special thanks to Joe Daniels, copyright owner, co-writer, and original drummer from LocalH for permission to use Bound for the Floor by LocalH as our show's theme song. Click the support the show link to make a small donation via GoFundMe to support the Paul F. Compton's Scholarship for Excellence in Digital Forensics. Be great and do great things, my friends.