Per his own LinkedIn [1], Michael Picket, the Secret Service agent, is a member of the New England Electronic Crimes Task Force Forensic Laboratory. Their website [2] has long role for the lab, but it a) supports local law enforcement (like Cambridge PD), and b) includes seven area universities (Harvard, Dartmouth, and Babson are the three mentioned; MIT was not, but doesn't necessarily exclude them).
My guess is it wasn't so much the Secret Service getting involved, but this DHS agency mandated by the USA PATRIOT act [3] made themselves available to major local organizations. Wouldn't be surprised if ECTF spent its first couple of years just meeting individual orgs one at a time for meets/greets.
"Have a computer crime that isn't just your usual Craigslist scam? Give Mike over at the Boston ECTF a call, and he can help you out."
My guess is it wasn't so much the Secret Service getting involved, but this DHS agency mandated by the USA PATRIOT act [3] made themselves available to major local organizations. Wouldn't be surprised if ECTF spent its first couple of years just meeting individual orgs one at a time for meets/greets.
"Have a computer crime that isn't just your usual Craigslist scam? Give Mike over at the Boston ECTF a call, and he can help you out."
[1] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-pickett/15/722/660 [2] http://www.secretservice.gov/ectf_newengland.shtml [3] http://www.secretservice.gov/ectf.shtml