Special Agent Steven V. Telisak attended the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he received his undergraduate degree in 2000. In late 2003, Steve began his career in federal law enforcement with the United States Border Patrol. While working as a Border Patrol Agent, Steve served approximately two-and-a-half years as a task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Steve was hired by the FBI in August 2014, and was assigned to the Springfield Division – Quad Cities Resident Agency (RA) in Moline, Illinois. Steve was originally tasked with working violent crimes against children where he had his initial exposure to computer facilitated crime, social media exploitation, data encryption, and digital forensics. Steve received training from the FBI in peer-to-peer file sharing systems and online undercover operations. Steve attended FBI extraction, imaging, review and preservation of digital evidence training in 2016. Since receiving that training, Steve has performed on scene digital forensics at many search sites, imaged dozens of HDDs and SSDs, and extracted evidence from countless mobile devices. Steve was chosen by the FBI to attend SANS basic network security training in 2017. Steve has received training from the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Surveillance Team (CAST), and is working to attain the FBI’s certification as a cellular communications subject matter expert.
Steve is presently assigned Springfield Division’s Counter Intelligence program and focuses on targeting international threats with a digital or cyber nexus. Steve has investigated a number of business email compromises, and assisted the FBI Springfield Cyber squad with foreign software threats, and email server attacks by suspected international actors.