Security Dogs on the Digital Front Line: Fighting Fraud, Cybercrime, and Finding Hidden Data
The world is getting more digital. It’s true on the side of the criminals, too. As more and more fraudsters, child exploiters, insider thieves, and cybercriminals turn to digital storage, encrypted devices, or stashed electronics to commit their crimes, defenders are adapting. That includes the best allies a human can have: trained security dogs. When it comes to fraud, cybercrime, and digital evidence, these pups can be a powerful and previously underutilized part of any security or prevention strategy. They’re not just going to bark at the bad guys anymore. They are getting a foothold as the critical link between the physical security world and digital forensics. These best-of-breed K9s include real-world examples of “cybersecurity dogs,” how and where they’re already being used to combat fraud and cybercrime, and what their future role may hold.
Meet the Electronic Detection Dogs
Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. and worldwide are already utilizing specially trained canines to sniff out hidden devices. More commonly known as Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) K9s, these pups are trained to locate evidence such as smartphones, tablets, USB flash drives, SD/microSD cards, hard drives, and even embedded storage media.
According to the U.S. Secret Service, these dogs are trained to detect a chemical compound found on digital storage devices. These electronics include (memory) chips, circuit boards, and other components that may be found on a hidden device — even a disguised or altered one. So long as that chemical residue is present on a storage device, the dogs can detect it.
In this way, ESD K9s can be a critical tool for finding digital evidence that would be difficult or impossible to find otherwise — including for cases of fraud, child exploitation, cybercrime, and other illegal activities involving electronic data storage.
Real World Deployments: Cybersecurity Dogs in Action
A few real-world examples of where law enforcement has already successfully deployed these ESD K9s:
LIBERTY — Carolina Beach Police Department (CBPD) (2025)
In August 2025, the Carolina Beach Police Department in North Carolina announced the official joining of “Liberty,” a two-year-old Labrador retriever that would serve as the department’s first electronic detection K9. CBPD’s Liberty is capable of finding hidden or disguised electronic devices such as cell phones, spy cameras, hard drives, USB flash drives, and micro-SD cards.
Liberty will help support cases involving child exploitation, fraud, narcotics, and other offenses where digital evidence may be used. Liberty graduated from the United States Secret Service (USSS) Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) program at the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI).
CACHE — US Secret Service / NCFI Training Program (2025)
In 2025, the USSS led an initiative to train K9 teams to detect hidden and disguised electronic devices and media, such as cell phones, SD cards, USB drives, external hard drives, and more. In one featured training scenario, a certified ESD K9 named Cache found a micro-SD card concealed in the battery compartment of a TV remote control. This was part of a larger training exercise that involved a mock hotel room setting. During the training search, Cache and the K9 handler found all 10 hidden electronic storage devices that had been “planted” in the hotel room setting. The agencies noted the hidden devices found during training were similar to what they might encounter during actual investigations, such as cell phones, memory cards, USB drives, and other storage media that could contain evidence of child exploitation, fraud, homicide, or workplace improprieties.
ZEKE — Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office (2024–2025)
In 2024, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) made public that their ESD K9 Zeke was being utilized by the department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit. These devices included laptops, cellphones, USBs, SD cards, and more. One case in particular occurred in February 2025 when deputies received a cyber tip reporting a piece of content that had been uploaded from an address in question. Upon searching the home, Zeke found 20 cell phones hidden in luggage near a bed and a nightstand.
The devices may have been overlooked by human investigators, or it may have taken a significant time to identify the quantity of devices through manual search. In this case, Zeke’s accuracy and speed were critical. The ACSO suspects involved were arrested and charged with felonies for sexual exploitation of children.
SCOOTER — Nebraska State Patrol (2025)
In June 2025, the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) announced the addition of Scooter, a two-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, as the agency’s first-ever electronic storage detection dog. NSP’s Scooter is trained to detect a common chemical found in electronics. He can help sniff out video cameras, GPS trackers, and other digital media stashed or hidden by criminals and predators. NSP’s Tech Crimes Unit says this addition will greatly enhance their ability to find electronic devices that would be difficult to identify by manual search alone. The team noted that Scooter would be a vital asset in child exploitation cases, fraud, and human trafficking investigations.
Why Canine-Aided Digital Evidence Recovery Is Important
Devices are getting smaller, easier to hide, and more difficult to detect — even with forensic tools. Hidden or stashed electronic devices are increasingly found in locations such as inside furniture, behind walls, inside vehicles, clothing, or in places that a human investigator might not look (or not look thoroughly).
The senses and capabilities of an ESD dog can augment human search efforts by sweeping areas methodically and at a much faster rate. There’s also a very real possibility that an ESD K9 can find hidden devices a human investigator might not.
Speed and Investigative Efficiency: Speed Is of the Essence
Investigations into fraud, child exploitation, human trafficking, or any technical criminal activity often have an element of time pressure. Will electronic devices be moved, destroyed, or encrypted before search warrants are served? What about if a search is delayed? Dogs like Zeke and Liberty can be critical in accelerating a search process and ensuring that as many devices are found before data is lost or destroyed.
Targeted to Specific Investigation Types
Cybercrime, financial fraud, data theft, child exploitation, and a variety of other target-specific investigations are primary current use cases for ESD K9s. For example, the deployment use cases above range from local police departments, like Carolina Beach PD or Arapahoe County SO, to federal task forces like the USSS, or to state-level agencies such as the Nebraska State Patrol.
By treating canine assets as core components of technical crime teams, law enforcement can continue to improve on investigation workflows as these special units are integrated into investigations.
Forensic Integrity and Completeness
One important side-effect of the ESD K9s is their potential to find storage media and devices that investigators or even forensics tools may miss. The better the chance that evidence can be found at the point of search and investigation, the more useful it may be down the line, both for prosecution as well as intelligence or insights to share with others or the public.
What This Means for Information Security and Fraud Prevention: The Future
While digital crime grows ever more sophisticated and entrenched, the line between physical and information security is going to get more and more blurred. To a degree, ESD K9s already play a role in that — and there’s plenty more room for them to help in the future.
The following is what their expanded role might begin to look like in the coming years:
Standard Component of Cyber-Forensics & Fraud Investigations: ESD K9s have the potential to become standard for investigations that traditionally focus on corporate fraud, insider data theft, intellectual property theft, ransomware, and data breaches. This may come as law enforcement agencies and even private sector security teams see the value.
Integrated Physical-Cyber Security in Business & Sensitive Environments: For commercial environments that handle sensitive data, data centers, financial institutions, research labs, and more may begin to use these dogs as one layer in a comprehensive strategy for defense. This may include electronic audits, access controls, cybersecurity monitoring, and physical sweeps.
Faster Evidence Preservation & Incident Response: In insider or external data incident investigations, canine-supported sweeps may help rapidly identify and isolate unauthorized storage media for faster forensic imaging and mitigation.
Support for Emerging or Unknown Crimes Involving IoT or Embedded Devices: As more IoT devices, embedded storage, or other disguised electronics (hidden cameras, recorders, etc.) are used in criminal activities, dogs trained to detect the chemical signature of electronic components may be critical in helping to identify such devices even when they are physically disguised or embedded in other objects.
Wide-Scale Adoption Across Jurisdictions, Agencies, and Enforcement: With recent examples of continued expansion, such as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the Nebraska State Patrol recently adding ESD dogs, there is potential for broader expansion as more agencies look at adoption, including at regional, local, or task force levels.
Potential Challenges, Things to Think About, or Items Needed in the Future
While ESD K9s have power and potential, effectively integrating them into investigations and security workflows faces potential roadblocks and issues:
- Training, Standardization, & Scale: Effective use and integration with investigative workflows require dogs to be trained effectively, along with the handlers. This may require rigorous standards in current and future training (ex., the USSS’s ESD training through NCFI is one excellent existing program, but scale and proliferation may take resources, standardization, and QC).
- Legal Standards & Forensics Protocols: Integration into evidence collection may require a certain level of chain-of-custody, documentation, and digital forensics treatment, especially for evidence that may be used in prosecution or legal proceedings. Legal teams must adapt and establish protocols for new types of evidence collection.
- Awareness & Coordination with Cybersecurity Teams: For private sector or commercial teams, these concepts and processes are just as important. Cybersecurity, incident response, and digital forensics teams must adapt their workflows and evidence collection procedures in order to support the dogged recovery of devices and other electronic storage media.
- Resource & Funding Limitations: Finally, if a widespread expansion of canine units is desired or called for, more funding, training, and resourcing will be required, especially for regional, state, or local agencies that may lack funding, infrastructure, and support for the effort.
Wrapping Up: When Security Dogs Get Digital
Trained security dogs that can sniff out hidden electronics are more than a cute story – they are a real, important, and practical tool in fighting fraud, cybercrime, data theft, and digital evidence recovery. Especially in the right circumstances and with the right training, evidence-recovery K9s can meaningfully support existing investigations and be a powerful and previously underutilized part of any security or prevention strategy.
We’ve covered a few real-world examples of where dogs are already making a difference in supporting investigations and evidence recovery in combating fraud, cybercrime, and other digital malfeasance. These dogs have been used to recover hidden devices, accelerate evidence recovery, and directly and meaningfully support investigations.
As the tools and technology used by criminals and fraudsters themselves continue to grow more sophisticated, and as digital storage continues to shrink and hide with greater ease, ESD K9s can be a critical link. The nose of a well-trained dog on the scent of a hidden memory chip, hard drive, USB, or other digital media storage may become just as important as more traditional forensic methods. Dogs can be on the front line for your business, your agency, or your team.
It’s reassuring that this special pack can enhance security, and to these loyal doggos we say, “Good dog.”
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