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Man's best friend trains nose on cyber crime

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Man's best friend trains nose on cyber crime

The latest cyber fighting weapon for the Federal Bureau of Investigation just might take a bite out of crime.

New Jersey's FBI is getting a pooch to help the agency with investigations where they need to search for digital media, according to a news report.

The dog has been purchased by the FBI but won't punch in on the work clock for at least five months while it trains with the New Jersey State Police.

Canines are often used by law enforcement for their extraordinary noses and they can be specially trained to sniff for electronic devices such as thumb drives, SD cards, external hard drives and mobile phones.

“It could be as small as a fingernail, anything that memory can be stored in, the dog will be able to scent or alert on,” Celeste Danzi, a New Jersey FBI special agent, said in a news report.

A black lab named Bear is one of only three dogs in the U.S. who have been specially trained as electronic detection K9s.

Bear's nose can sniff out any type of electronics and can search an entire living room for hidden devices in five minutes, reports said.

During a controlled demonstration, the K9 detector's nose sniffed out items that included a hard drive hidden between couch cushions, an iPad in a backpack, a micro SD card hidden out of sight in a wine rack, and a flash drive tucked into a magazine holder.

Insurers will be tempted to ask businesses to keep a pup or two on the company's payroll, once dogs learn how to sense incoming cyber attacks.

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