Four University of New Orleans computer science students have been selected for paid internships with Cellebrite Labs, a global leader in digital intelligence, as part of a new partnership with the computer science department.

The digital forensics internship initiative provides UNO computer science students the capability to build industry cybersecurity experience before they graduate, said Mahdi Abdelguerfi, University of New Orleans computer science professor and department chair. The students work remotely with experienced teams, while also maintaining their academic obligations.  

Cellebrite provides law enforcement, military, intelligence and enterprise customers with industry-proven solutions for digital forensics, triage and analytics. Founded in 1999, the company has more than 500 employees with dedicated operations in the United States, Israel, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and Australia.

“I was very happy with the number and quality of the applicants,” said Joe Sylve, manager of research and development at Cellebrite. “UNO computer science has definitely produced more qualified applicants than we had available positions, so I am hopeful that we will be able to grow the program in the future.”

The 2021 spring interns are: Veronica Spicer, Louis Sivori, Gregory Serio and David McDonald.

“I'm grateful to have been given an opportunity to learn how to work with a team remotely, as well as what will be expected of me in the field,” Sivori said.

Cellebrite’s research and development department, Cellebrite Labs, is the heart and mind of the digital forensic research analysis at Cellebrite. The groups locate, analyze and parse forensic artefacts from file systems, application data and other binary inputs. Research topics vary from deleted artefact recovery and reconstruction, data carving and analysis to file/protocol format reverse engineering.

The company has a “remote” presence in the city of New Orleans and three UNO graduates are employed with Cellebrite, Abdelguerfi said.

The UNO student interns work with a group of researchers, who are responsible for the analysis of applications and binary file formats. Their duties include assisting in the analysis of proprietary and open formats, writing production code and conducting forensic research on artefacts in different operating systems.

“With my cybersecurity concentration, having a related internship is invaluable to my career in cyber,” Spicer said. “I am thankful to the UNO computer science department and Dr. Sylve for the opportunity.”