Former South Windsor High School School Resource Officer, Officer Peter Korchari, has a new position in South Windsor as a digital investigator. He is helping to combat a huge problem for minors today: cyber crime and digital safety.
Korchari is part of the Connecticut Center for Digital Investigations (CDI), a task force consisting of 14 agencies, that “conduct computer and mobile device forensics and criminal investigations related to cyber crime such as the distribution of child pornography, online enticement of children, network intrusions, cyber threats, email scams, etc.,” (CDI). Because a lot of agencies are not large enough to have their own digital investigator, this group works collectively to conduct the most thorough investigations that they can to ensure the safety of children on the internet.
South Windsor has one detective devoted to digital investigations – Officer Korchari – Manchester has two – a sergeant and detective – and Glastonbury has one. Other departments such as East Hartford Police, Vernon Police, UCONN Police, Newington police, Wethersfield Police and Windsor Locks Police are also represented in this task force, but do not have a full time investigator assigned to the unit. The CDI works with surrounding agencies in the greater Hartford area, as well as federal agencies with many of their cases, such as ATF, DEA, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
“[If] there is any type of cases that involve technology: computers, cell phones, storage devices, sometimes like those warrants for bitcoin stuff, for dark web stuff that come in, [those] are my area of expertise,” Officer Korchari said. “And the bigger part, like the one thing that we work a ton of time on, are ICAC and NCMEC.”
ICAC stands for Internet Crimes Against Children, a national network of task forces that connects federal, state and local law enforcement. These cases typically consist of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and other sensitive material. Those all come from the NCMEC (National Crimes Center for Missing and Exploited Children). ICAC has a group in Connecticut that then assigns cases relevant to the CDI.
The process of Officer Korchari’s investigations combating child exploitation can look something like this.
People working for social media companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are able to see what files are being exchanged between users. If those files are identified as CSAM, they are reported to ICAC. The Connecticut State Police report and distribute these tips to the right agencies, where it eventually reaches the CDI, and Officer Korchari receives his case.
“So I get that case, I look at all the stuff, and I have to review all the video files, all the pictures, and then always attached to that case is an IP address,” Korchari explained. “An IP address is unique to people and devices that they are using and networks that they’re using it on.”
Korchari can then contact the ISP that owns the IP address and figure out the user of that IP address. He is then able to file a search warrant and seize devices capable of sending or transmitting the files in question.
From start to finish this process can take months.
The most concerning behavior Officer Korchari sees in children and adolescents, in regards to social media use, is the oversharing of information, which is why in the last year he has done five presentations at elementary schools to educate 5th graders about online safety and cyber-bullying.
Principal of Philip R. Smith Elementary School in South Windsor, Mrs. Michelle Dixon, welcomes Officer Korchari each year to speak to the 5th grade students because schools recognize the importance of educating students on internet safety.
“I think understanding internet safety is super important – you should be very cautious on what information you post or how you communicate over the internet and social media because that can have both short term and long term consequences,” South Windsor High School social worker, Mrs. Treviso commented.
These consequences can impact college and job applications in the future but there are also unintended consequences as well.
Officer Korchari warns others of the dangers and effects of sharing personal information online, such as sharing address, DOB and pictures or videos that are specific and personal.
“When you put a video up on TikTok where I can see in the background you’re a South Windsor High School student and this is the year you graduate, and maybe you don’t have your face in it but I see identifying things in the background, people can do a lot of stuff with that,” Korchari explained.
In such a short time, so much has changed with technology and the lines between personal and public are often blurred.
“It’s important to be mindful of what you’re posting and who can see what you post,” Treviso said. “Students should always be careful because you never really know who you’re communicating with over some social media applications.”
The issue of child exploitation is larger than most people realize. Although it is difficult to say exactly how many incidents of online sharing of (CSAM) are happening, the volume of cases that Officer Korchari and his colleagues in the task force investigate regarding the issue, leads him to believe it’s a more prevalent issue than it’s perceived to be.
The content that Officer Korchari deals with isn’t pretty. And, while it may be a difficult pill to swallow, it must be recognized that the issue of child exploitation doesn’t only exist around the world, but also within South Windsor.
“These cases that I am working on are really really awful cases where I have to make arrests [myself]. And I walk away feeling good about that arrest because, in my mind I am out there keeping kids safe, I’m arresting people that kind of need to be arrested,” Korchari said. “Maybe when I get that case, I stop them from actually acting on it down the road.”
The stigma surrounding the topic of crimes against children, especially those that involve abuse and exploitation, makes it difficult to share the important and vital work done by law enforcement and agencies, to combat the issue.
However, simultaneously, in order to abolish the stigma surrounding child exploitation, awareness must be raised. This is especially important as technology is changing faster than the court and legal system can keep up.
AI raises a large concern in terms of digital forensics: its ability to generate CSAM files. This raises the question of whether the files law enforcement are viewing are genuine or AI generated.
Courts are presented with the question of whether or not AI generated files can be considered CSAM.
Korchari personally thinks that courts are going to say that it doesn’t matter if the CSAM is AI generated or not. “The intended purpose of it is still bad,” Korchari commented.
Preventing digital crimes involving CSAM is a difficult problem to resolve. The sheer volume of files being shared and created are overloading the companies that process these files.
“There’s no way for those companies to monitor every single file that you send, it’s just impossible to do,” Korchari said.
In the future, Korchari anticipates that technology’s influence and involvement in crimes will only continue to increase. As a result, the need for devices to be examined, and people in digital forensics positions, will increase as well.
Korchari is a large proponent for online privacy and wants social media users to realize “that if you put something out there, assume that even if you take it down or try to delete it, it’s out there forever.”
Korchari stresses that it is important to be intentional about what you post and to control the narrative that you provide for others to see about you.
“You guys do your Snapchat stuff, and you think it disappears, but then I get your phone on an investigation, and I look at it and I can find most of what you post,” Korchari said.
His main piece of advice is for both parents and children to be aware of everything they post to the internet.
“I love parents who are looking at what their children are doing online because I think you have to.”
Korchari does this with his own kids, too.
