My favourite movie as a kid was Harriet the Spy. I loved movies that had a problem-solving, adventure or excitement element. So I don’t think anyone was surprised when I chose to study forensic science, criminology and criminal justice at Griffith. I entered the Australian Federal Police (AFP) through a graduate program and stayed there for five years, then moved to a law firm. Now, I’m Manager at KordaMentha, an independent advisory firm specialising in digital forensics – the identification, preservation, analysis and reporting of digital evidence.
I was the first in my family to attend university. It was a big culture shock moving from Lennox Head to Brisbane/Meanjin and I didn’t know anyone. But I found the Peer Assisted Study Sessions very helpful for my studies and making friends.
The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice has an excellent student society that gave me a lot of exposure to different parts of the criminal justice system and all the cogs in that wheel. So I really enjoyed my time at Griffith.
Fun fact: I didn’t actually study the digital side of forensics or IT. In fact, I majored in forensic molecular biology. But I was drawn to digital forensics in the final year of my undergrad degree, when I did professional practice with the Queensland Police’s fraud and cybercrime group. That’s where my interest in cybercrime and the digital landscape of crime began.
I was attracted to the fact that the technology landscape changes and advances so quickly. And when I arrived at the AFP, I realised while the biology team does incredibly important work, much of it happens in the lab – while the digital forensics team are out in the field. I found that many of the skills I learned at Griffith were transferable, and I developed the technical side through training on the job.
I was one of two women in a team of 40 at the AFP. I’d be lying if I said that was easy. But I also had supportive and encouraging male mentors, and I still do. I feel like it’s a deeply embedded male-dominant culture but that’s starting to shift. We’ve had a second woman start with us at KordaMentha in Sydney/Warrane and I’m very excited to be able to support her. The skills that women often bring – that human element and a level of understanding that goes beyond the tech – are so important.
The weirdest thing I’ve ever analysed for a case is an app that works with diabetes monitors. We’ll analyse anything that stores data – laptops, phones, drones, vehicle systems, apps.
There have been cases where health apps on phones have shown an increased heart rate at certain times during the night – showing that somebody wasn’t sleeping when they claimed to be. Digital evidence can often be the most important evidence in an investigation.
Criminals are always looking for new ways to exploit technology. They’re constantly learning – so we are, too. It’s a battle. If they up their game, we’ll up ours. And we’re also social engineers. We try to understand how someone might go about committing a crime. For example, if you were planning to take out intellectual property from a business – how would you transfer that? Would you use a USB? Would you put it in the cloud? Would you send it to a friend?
When you walk into someone’s house on a search warrant, it’s often the worst day of their life. You have to appreciate that and make sure that the human element is at the forefront of everything that you do. My lecturers and researchers at Griffith really focused on the psychological and sociological impacts of crime. Those human factors are critical if we want to create real societal change, especially in areas like domestic and family violence.
There’s nothing wrong with a trashy Law and Order SVU episode! I watch TV crime shows, but I lean towards fiction rather than documentaries. I find it hard to watch things if I’m not sure a victim’s family has been involved in that process. I feel that same way about dramatisations of real-life events: we need to consider the ethics of true crime. But some of that fictional telly is entertaining – even if it’s not entirely accurate!
Lucy Farrell (B Criminology & Criminal Justic/B Forensic Science '14; B Criminology & Criminal Justice (Hons) '16) is a digital forensic scientist and manager at KordaMentha.
Image captions (top to bottom):
- Lucy Farrell.
- Lucy at Club Sign On Day with the Griffith University Criminology Student Society.
- Lucy speaking at the graduation ceremony for the 2016 AFP Graduate Program at the AFP College in Canberra. She was nominated by her peers to share the highlights on the cohort’s behalf at the ceremony.
Published 25 June 2026
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